I Hate You Less Than Usual
by DelicateInnocence
Summary: In light of a recent spike in dating, two residents of South Park have struck up a deal. A Not-Quite-Friends With Benefits deal. Provided they can tolerate each other long enough, they might just make it through this sickeningly overbearing Valentine-eque Nightmare. Kenny Craig, with pieces about Style.
1. Chapter 1

A red car, clearly used because it had obvious dents in the exterior and scrapes where the paint was missing not entirely caused by the previous owner, sat parked in the empty lot of a convenience store. Kenny McCormick wasn't sure just what possessed him to take them to a 24/7 convenience store, but he'd parked in the shade of the trees, and at eleven o'clock at night, the only people wandering around would be safely out of side around the front of the store, probably smoking joints. Kenny could almost go for a joint right about now.

"You just gonna stare at the store all night? What, you want a snack?"

Kenny could definitely go for a joint right now. He looked over to see Craig Tucker, slouched in his passenger seat, knees against the dash as if he had no worries about being crushed by airbags. Which was good because Kenny only had one and it was in the driver's seat area. He rarely drove people around in his car and half of the time they just lounged in the back seat anyway.

"Why did you take us here, anyway? You want to get caught?"

Kenny pinched the bridge of his nose, a habit he'd picked up from his friends. Craig's complaining was almost overriding the deal they'd made last weekend. And that would be a real waste of gas, carting this guy from his house all the way here.

"I didn't know where else to go. Look, no one will see us, it's no big deal." Kenny calmly responded, shifting in his seat to look at Craig full on. "So...you ready?"

Craig studied Kenny for a moment before shrugging. He unclipped his seatbelt and was the first to shift himself into the back seat, falling heavily onto the worn leather interior and beckoning lazily for Kenny to follow. It would have been an endearing motion, had the person who had given it not been Craig Tucker.

Kenny didn't have to undo his seatbelt before crawling into the back after Craig; he rarely wore one to begin with. What did he have to be afraid of? He'd died before, he could do it again and no one could even scold him for not wearing a seatbelt because no one would remember him dying.

"How do you want to do this?" Kenny asked.

Craig seemed to think hard for a second, his eyes memorizing the interior of the car with only one or two withering glances at the duct tape repairs Kenny had made after buying the car from a man who'd let his dogs loose in the back when he went driving.

"I'll sit against here, I guess." Craig said, pushing himself up until his back hit the junction between the back door and the back rest. "You can do whatever."

Kenny took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He'd had one night stands before, even had a Friend With Benefits when he had been in middle school, but it had never been someone he actually had a class with. He'd grown up around Craig and now, they worked together at a grocery store. Craig was in deli meats and Kenny wasn't far off in the bakery. He wasn't exactly nervous, but this wasn't exactly normal.

Finally, realizing that Craig had been staring openly at him with a raised brow for a few seconds, Kenny moved, placing one foot on the floor of his car and inching his knee in between Craig's. One of the darker haired boy's legs followed Kenny's idea and he let it slide off the seat and rest uselessly against the car floor.

The two had agreed to do this after being left out of the dating spike South Park had apparently been gripped with, but it didn't make it any easier to start. It wasn't like Kenny could mutter soothing words like he could with girls that made them like putty in his hands, Craig was too hard for that. It also wasn't like he could argue with him to get him riled up because only Kyle Broflovski argued back with him and neither friend had any intent to get the other in the back seat of a car.

"What do you like?" Kenny asked, idly dragging his fingers along Craig's flat chest, surprised that there seemed to be actual muscle mass to this boy he'd never seen do sports in his entire life.

"I don't know." Helpful as always. "I don't kiss on the lips though."

"Not even with girlfriends? Or boyfriends?" Kenny added that last part because...well, Craig was here with a guy, wasn't he?

"Those are different. We're not boyfriends. We're lonely fucks who want to get fucked. That's it."

Kenny almost laughed. Craig was so blunt that his tone almost had enough power to punch people for him.

"Alright, alright." Kenny returned. "Well, how about we start slow? I mean, looks like we're going to be doing this for a while," The amount of romantic couple out there was sickening and the single people were worse still...but mostly for their looks. Kenny was not about to hook up with Stacy Mullenberg*****. "So we've got a lot of ground we can cover."

"You would know." Was Craig's smart ass retort.

"I'm not as big of a whore as you think. But you don't care so let's move on." Kenny said, his tone annoyed. Everyone deemed him as the town whore, which he couldn't deny because...well, he liked sex more than he liked correcting rumors. But there were plenty of other people Kenny would call worse than him. Mr. Garrison, for example.

In an effort to silence Craig, Kenny leaned forward. He was in no rush, so it really didn't matter how fast they took this, so long as Kenny remained in control. He didn't know what Craig's style was and wasn't eager to find out just yet. Especially not when it might do more damage to his already abused car.

Kenny attached his lips to Craig's jaw, kissing along the skin until he met Craig's ear. He licked along the outer shell and blew softly onto the moisture, causing a shiver to run down the dark haired boy's spine. Kenny smirked at this. Even a little reaction was cause for celebration when it came from the world's most monotone individual. He continued to press his lips to various points on Craig's neck and moving his shirt out of the way so he could get at the skin at his shoulder.

Craig let his head loll to the side Kenny wasn't working on, simultaneously bored but tingling in the places Kenny touched him. Compared to Kenny's list of partners, Craig's was pretty pathetic. He'd had two girlfriends in high school and a couple of flings since then, but really, he was pretty unimpressive in the dating department. He hadn't even touched himself in months. He twitched when he felt the fingers of Kenny's right hand slide along his bare skin, just under the hem of his plain blue T-shirt. He only knew it was Kenny's right hand because his left hand was the one pulling at the collar of his shirt so Kenny had more room to kiss skin and not cotton fibers.

Apparently Kenny had decided that Craig's shirt was covering too much because he suddenly felt Kenny yank the hem up and Craig lifted his arms, hands smacking the ceiling of the car and causing him to wince. Kenny discarded the shirt to the floor and Craig immediately said, "Don't put that on your dirty floor! I don't want bits of food or...prostitute, whatever you keep in the back of your car on my shirt."

Kenny seemed to debate arguing, but he sighed and snatched up the shirt to drop it into the passenger seat.

"Happy? And I don't keep prostitutes in the back of my car." Kenny muttered, with just a little hint of irritation in his tone.

"That's right, you keep them in the trunk." Craig replied, not so much trying to start a fight as to see how long they could argue before Kenny remembered he'd taken Craig's shirt off for a reason.

"No, I keep them in storage containers. They build a little house in there and I get to visit them instead of bringing them home and holy fuck, are you photo shopped?" Kenny had de-railed mid rant when he caught sight of the faint but still visible abs Craig was sporting.

"Wha-...no?" Craig arched an eyebrow and looked to where Kenny's eyes were staring. "I work out, dude. It's not like I have much of a social life with everyone out fucking each other."

"When do you have time to work out, you work at the store so much." Kenny mused, running his fingers along Craig's stomach.

"Why does it matter when I work out, I manage it." Craig took a hold of Kenny's hands to stop his movements. Kenny's light fingers were tickling him and he'd be damned before he admitted that to the blonde boy in front of him.

Kenny's eyes focused on Craig's hands next and leaned forward to press his lips to both hands. The action surprised Craig but the surprise came across as a small frown.

"You realize that we're technically holding hands right now, right?"

And that ruined it. Craig let go of Kenny's hands and the blonde boy dared to laugh at his reaction. Before Craig could complain, however, Kenny seemed to come back to the situation at hand and began attacking the dark haired boy's chest with his hands and lips. Fingers trailed down his sides, causing involuntary twitches throughout Craig's body and he had to admit Kenny was good with his mouth. He kissed every sensitive spot Craig had which included his waist, inner hips and the pink buds on his chest that Kenny was currently attending to. He circled the bud with his tongue and blew on it, just like he had with Craig's ear. Sure enough, another shiver.

Kenny kept his smile to himself, though he would have loved to have shown it to the usually smug boy beneath him. He switched targets and did the same to that one and was pleased to notice Craig's breath was coming out just a little bit quicker than before. Now if only he could get him to move beyond little twitches.

Kenny situated himself better in the backseat, wedging one knee in between Craig and the car door and the other moving to press between Craig and the car seat. Straddling Craig, Kenny could see that the boy had very dark eyes. They were blue, he could see that in the light from the convenience store spilling in through his windows, but very dark all the same. They were kind of beautiful. Without really meaning to, he pressed a kiss to Craig's temples, close to his eyes without actually touching them.

"McCormick..." It sounded like a warning, but Craig didn't reach to stop him.

"You said no lips, that wasn't lips." Kenny answered back and continued pressing kisses to Craig's face and going back down to his neck occasionally while working his hands lower and lower until he was casually rubbing along Craig's thighs.

The dark haired boy seemed to lean forward just a bit as Kenny ran his hands up and down the space of leg he could reach and Kenny spoke, being sure to speak softly and directly into Craig's ear.

"You can touch me too, you know. That was part of the deal."

Craig seemed to battle with this decision, but soon enough, Kenny found Craig's hands uncertainly mapping out his waist. The longer this played out, the more of Craig's defenses fell to Kenny's touch and before long, Kenny could feel Craig's lips against his cheek and jawbone as he leaned in to give similar treatment to Craig's skin.

Sneaking a peak at Craig's facial expression, Kenny was a little disappointed that he seemed no less bored, despite being an active participant now, but he would make that change. Something inside of Kenny was promising that the night wouldn't end without Craig Tucker coming undone right and proper. With that thought in mind, Kenny moved one hand from the boy's thigh and began to gently run his thumb across the bump that Craig was sporting in his jeans. It wasn't as hard as Kenny would have liked it to be at this point, but it was a start.

Sure enough, Craig shivered and a breathy sort of noise escaped him before he fastened his lips to Kenny's neck in an attempt to stifle himself. Kenny took it up another level by changing his tactics to biting and licking, kissing only when Craig couldn't hold in a hiss of pain or moved to push Kenny away. The sight of Craig even slightly undone was like an aphrodisiac to Kenny so even as Craig's pants tightened further, Kenny wasn't far away from the same.

Someone so stoic had to have an undo button and Kenny was determined to find all of them on the Tucker boy, even if tonight was only supposed to be an introductory course to what the two of them would most likely be doing in their attempts to ignore the happy couples in their town.

Speaking of buttons, Kenny slid the one keeping Craig's pants together out of its hole and began to fiddle absently with the zipper next. It was still weird, knowing that the one breathing hard beneath him was a co-worker, but Kenny could definitely overlook that now that he was aroused because of said co-worker.

All in all, Craig wasn't bad looking. He was actually sort of gorgeous. In Kenny's opinion, anyway. Craig Tucker had that nonchalant rockstar thing going for him, even though he couldn't play any instrument that wasn't attached to a video game system and totally rigged. Straight black hair, decidedly not bad chest and stomach that he'd been keeping from everyone and the way Craig's eyelids grew heavier with arousal and his hands were tugging at Kenny's shirt made the blonde haired boy believe that he hadn't made such a bad choice, proposing this idea to the eldest Tucker offspring.

Kenny slipped his hand under the jeans to rub at the front of Craig's Red Racer briefs. He still liked all those kid shows, claiming "the television of today sucked balls, so why not just keep watching the good shit"? Kenny couldn't argue since today's television included pretty women making not so unattractive men pretend they were interested in more than her boobs in order to marry her and various doctor shows telling you how unhealthy you're eating or how healthy your unhealthy habits might actually be. Cartoons were definitely better entertainment.

Craig's head fell back against the seat and Kenny watched him try to lift it back to look at the blonde boy with visible effort. He wasn't going very fast, actually, but his hand definitely had an effect Kenny rather liked on Craig. Little noises, mostly just breathy gasps or sighs, were escaping between Craig's parted lips and Kenny actually cursed the no kissing on the lips rule. Craig's looked so ready to have just that done right now, but Kenny averted his eyes and concentrated on his task.

He licked a trail up along Craig's stomach and the boy visibly cringed away, but didn't move to stop Kenny so he didn't think too hard on it.

Moving Craig's jeans down over his hips was bloody hard. Kenny banged his head on the car ceiling before he managed to get Craig to lift his hips and work with him. Getting them over the knees would have been impossible in this little car, so Kenny decided Craig would have to deal with that when the time came.

Kenny hooked a finger under the elastic band of Craig's briefs and gave his most seductive glance back up at the black haired boy. Craig didn't seem unnerved by the look, though his fingers reached forward and caught a significant amount of Kenny's hair. Ignoring the pinch in almost every hair strand Craig had caught a hold of, Kenny followed where the hand was leading him and felt Craig's lips on his neck. He struggled a bit to keep his position over the other and shivered as he felt cold air hit his stomach. Craig was lifting his shirt up and Kenny wordlessly raised his arms as high as they could go in the car and simply ducked out of the rest of the shirt so he wouldn't smack himself on the car again.

"No fair for you to still have this stupid thing." Craig reasoned, without needing to. Kenny didn't care why Craig took his shirt off but he took it from the boy and chucked it into the passenger seat with the plain blue shirt that was occupying the space as well.

Craig grabbed Kenny by the back of the head, opting not to pull on his hair this time which was good news for Kenny, but the blonde boy nearly lost balance as Craig pulled him forward again and pressed his lips to the newly exposed skin. For once, Kenny did nothing, just let Craig take the lead for a bit, and after what felt like seconds when it was probably more like minutes, Kenny felt himself rocking his hips just a little. They just barely grazed each other as Kenny moved and the effect was a little maddening.

"Fuck...I can't do this anymore." The sudden voice of Craig startled Kenny out of his rhythm and he stopped, pulling back easily as Craig let his hands fall at his sides.

"Can't do this? You want to leave?" Kenny asked, a hint of worry actually creeping into his voice. He was hard and _now_ Craig wanted out?

Craig paused, blinking at Kenny before giving a short sort of laugh.

"No, you fucking idiot. I'm not walking home with a hard-on. I can't do this foreplay bullshit anymore, I feel like I'm losing my goddamn mind." Craig admitted, though he didn't seem any bit embarrassed. Still just stoic on the outside as he ever was, as if he didn't have a significant bulge that was clearly visible to Kenny.

Kenny nearly laughed too; the idea of Craig losing his mind over anything was unfathomable. But it made him proud to know that those words came directly because of his handiwork.

"Alright, I'll get to it." Kenny said with a smirk, saving the idea of tormenting Craig and making him beg for Kenny's hand for another day. Which was probably a terrible thought, but Kenny's mind wasn't in the politest place right now.

He began shifting Craig's briefs down, working again as best he could without injuring himself and this time Craig helped with no hesitation. So Craig was a little bigger than anticipated, Kenny thought, looking down at his co-workers member with appreciation. He closed his fingers around the shaft and Craig immediately went tense. Kenny gave him a reassuring look and began a slow rhythm to judge Craig's reaction.

Craig huffed in what could either be pleasure or impatience and pulled Kenny's head forward again, intent on kissing the blonde's neck while Kenny's hand worked on him. With Kenny's teeth gently biting his shoulder and his own mouth leaving hickies on Kenny's pale skin, Craig hoped to whatever god may or may not exist that Kenny was content staying here for the duration. Craig didn't know what he looked like when he came, but that right was reserved for his girlfriends or boyfriends, not casual fucks. Not to mention Kenny may never let him live it down if it turned out to look funny or something.

The skin at Kenny's neck was hurting just a little from how intent Craig was at his work, but the pain was kind of a pleasant sensation. Kenny had tried pain and pleasure together many times, once resulting in his death, but it had been worth it. He rewarded the pain with a quicker speed with his hands, alternating various strength grips as he went. Every so often he'd slide his thumb over the tip and Kenny decided he liked doing this because each time he'd do it, he'd catch Craig off guard and the dark haired boy would openly moan against his skin.

Kenny was hurting more and more as this progressed and weakly began palming himself through his own pants. His own hand felt wonderful, but it wasn't enough and he couldn't get Craig to let go of him long enough to properly undo his pants to get at himself. He decided to try asking before he actually went insane.

"Craig. Craig, can you help me?" Kenny asked, breathing hard beside Craig's ear.

"With...ngh...with what?" Craig asked in return. Cheeky bitch, shouldn't he know?

"My pants. Undo them for me." Kenny's voice was low and without meaning to, Craig took it rather sensually because he gave a long contented sigh and nodded into the space between Kenny's neck and shoulder.

Keeping one hand firmly on Kenny's back to secure him in place, Craig reached down with one hand and took a hold of the side of Kenny's pants that secured the button.

"Pull the other side." He huffed out, noticing that Kenny's hand wasn't stopping, despite their attempts to fix whatever pant situation Kenny was having, and it was making it a little hard to actually want to help him with anything that wasn't continuing to move his hand.

Kenny obeyed and the button pulled free of its loop.

"Thanks." Kenny mumbled and Craig ran his other hand along Kenny's bare side, making the blonde boy shudder pleasantly. He groaned softly as he pulled the zipper undone and hastily shoved his pants down over his rear and hips, taking his underwear with them. He clasped his free hand around himself and matched the rhythm he was using with Craig.

The feel of a hand, even if just his own hand, was an instant relief. Kenny sighed happily into Craig's shoulder and found that Craig had relocated his hand to Kenny's leg, just below his ass. Craig was gently kneading the skin there and occasionally running his nails across and Kenny involuntarily let out a strangled sort of moan in appreciation.

Craig's hips had started to buck up to meet Kenny's hand and Kenny rocked his own hips in answer. He dipped, though it was painful from this straddling position, so he could brush against Craig each time he rocked his hips and this caused a wonderful reaction in the dark haired boy.

"Mmm." Craig hummed, along with a fair few other unintelligible noises that had Kenny making some of his own.

"Fuck." Kenny heard the first word out of Craig's mouth and he tried to focus on what signs the boy was giving. Craig was thrusting into Kenny's hand irregularly and his breath was hot on Kenny's skin. Craig still wouldn't let Kenny see his face, but from the signs that were available to him, Kenny managed to reply with, "Coming?"

A harsh moan was his response and Kenny quickened his pace along both of them. Unsurprisingly, Craig came first, without much more warning than saying, "Ken-" and interrupting himself with a second of silence followed by a moan that Kenny would bet hurt his throat coming up. Kenny could feel the mess on his hand and slowed his pace on himself enough to speak plainly to Craig.

"That was good, right?"

"You're not done." Craig observed, letting go of Kenny and eying the still stroking hand.

"I will be in a sec, just give me-" Kenny felt something warm close around his own hand and looked to see that Craig had added his own hand to the job. Craig initiated a faster rhythm and Kenny could feel the warmth of Craig seep in between his fingers. With someone else helping him, Kenny lost it and released onto Craig's stomach with a guttural moan, falling forward to rest his forehead on Craig's shoulder.

They sat in silence, catching their breath until Kenny was strong enough to push himself over to the empty seat next to Craig.

"For someone...who doesn't kiss on the lips, you sure...kiss a lot." Kenny said, trying to calm his heart beat so he could speak properly, but it was hard to breathe. He chalked it up to what they had just done and the small space of air available in the car. He hastily pulled his underwear and jeans back up, not bothering to redo the buttons and leaned between the front seats to turn the ignition on the car.

Craig jumped in his seat, worried that Kenny was going to try driving while lounging between seats, but the car didn't move. Instead the radio started up, playing the latest tracks released and allowing Kenny to press a button on the front car doors, lowering the windows. The cool air eventually spread to the back seat and Craig basked in it, slowly reassembling himself, minus his shirt.

"So, that's more or less what we'll be up to, partner." Kenny said, sitting now between the front seats and looking at Craig. "You okay with that?"

Craig was too tired to glare at Kenny but he did respond with sarcasm.

"No, the evidence points to me not having a good time. I think I'll go home now and never see you again." Craig said, arching one eyebrow and gesturing to the mess on both their stomachs.

Kenny chuckled softly and rummaged around in the passenger seat.

"Hey, use this to clean up, I don't mind."

Craig found Kenny's white shirt thrown at him and scowled momentarily before realizing the only other option was using his own shirt.

"Fine." He said, wiping himself clean and folding the shirt to hand it back to Kenny without the blonde having to touch his mess. Without care, it seemed, Kenny just used the clean patches of shirt to wipe himself up. Crumpling it up to hide all the evidence, Kenny tucked his shirt under the back of the driver's seat and sat down properly in said seat, ignoring Craig's comment of, "Sick, dude, throw that out."

"I will when I get home." Kenny intoned effortlessly, though he knew he'd just wash it a few times and it'd be fine. "Get in, I can drive you home."

Craig maneuvered himself into the passenger seat gracelessly and held his shirt across his lap instead of putting it back on. The cool air was far too nice and he needed to get rid of that pinkish glow on his skin before he got home and his parents questioned him. At least if it was cold-pink, he could say he'd been out walking.

Neither really spoke on the drive home. The only interaction was Craig fiddling with the stereo without permission and Kenny telling him if he played shitty music, he'd be kicked out of the car. They drove up outside a small light blue house, home to four Tucker family members, two of which appeared to still be up, if the movement in the living room was anything to go by.

"You know, most people in their twenties move out of their parents house." Kenny remarked as Craig slid his shirt on and got ready to leave.

"Most people in their twenties don't live in South Park and have shit jobs." Craig retorted. "See you."

Kenny watched Craig head towards the door and frowned a bit when he saw the boy stop. Craig turned and came back to the car, leaning on Kenny's window to look right at him.

"You forget which way was home?" Kenny teased, but Craig shut him up with a glare.

"Hey, I wanted to…you know…thank you, I guess. I mean, not thank, but…it really sucks being left out and I'm so goddamn bored all the time. Give me your phone." Craig said, extending his hand to Kenny.

"Why?" Kenny asked, even as he was obediently handing over his cell phone.

Craig fiddled with the buttons for a bit and typed something that he wouldn't let Kenny see and wordlessly handed the phone back. He waved and headed back to the house.

Kenny waved as Craig left and waited until he got into the house before looking at his phone. Craig had opened up Kenny's contact list and a sneaking suspicion found its way to Kenny's gut. Sure enough, under C was Craig Tucker, complete with phone number. Kenny smiled. That idiot.

He'd have to bother Craig soon to do that again if he was going to survive the few days coming up he had planned with the people he dared call friends who all had girlfriends or boyfriends. Craig had no idea how much trouble he was in for now that Kenny had access to his phone number. He wondered vaguely as he drove home if Craig got more likeable the more time you spent with him.

*** - Stacy Mullenberg (season 16, episode 7, poster child for Halitosis Kidz!)**


	2. Chapter 2

The smell of fresh bread was amazing. Like, oh my god, claw your own eyes out, amazing. At least, that's what Kenny was thinking as he rested back against the counter, waiting for his co-worker to be done sorting through things. He was on register today, so he had to hand out the cakes and bread and bagels to people who really didn't need any more of those things all day. Quite depressing, really.

Luckily, Craig was at work too and Kenny could see him from here. Craig was slicing up some deli meat for a customer and it was a very good thing they never selected Craig to use the front cash register. The woman watching him do her order looked positively frightened. Craig wrapped the meat and handed it to the cashier; some spindly kid Kenny had tried befriending, but he was just as callous as Craig...just without the lack of facial expression. This kid was good at faces.

Kenny was brought out of his people watching when he caught Craig flipping him off. Oh, apparently he'd spotted his resident stalker. Kenny grinned deviously and stuck out his tongue, to which Craig scowled and turned his back to the blonde in bakery.

It had been two days since they'd met in the convenience store parking lot and Kenny had resisted abusing the Tucker's phone number. He'd almost caved a few times, just out of sheer boredom, but he found that turning on the television usually distracted him long enough to talk him out of it. Now, bored out of his mind and with no television, Kenny decided that perhaps today was the day his self control could bend a little.

He pulled his cell phone out of his uniform pocket and held it under the register so customers, or more importantly, his boss, wouldn't see it. Scrolling down, he selected Craig's number and opened up a text window.

_I never told you I love men in uniform, did I?_

Send. Kenny waited, risking a few glances over to watch for Craig's reaction. Did the boy even bring his phone onto the floor? The idea that Craig could be a well behaved employee and leave his Blackberry cell phone in his staff room locker was almost absurd, but Craig had surprised him before.

Sure enough, a nearly silent buzz alerted Craig to a message and he turned to half hid himself behind the slicing machine to check his phone.

Kenny felt a stupid grin cross his lips and he hurriedly looked away, trying to pretend he was readjusting the display cakes. A soft hum emitted from his pocket and he almost dropped his phone trying to check it.

_Yuck. I'd change, but then you'd see me naked._

Kenny felt heat creep up his neck. Now was not the time to be thinking of Craig naked and in an attempt to stop himself picturing it, he stuffed his phone back into his pocket and finished rearranging the displays.

Craig cast a glance over that Kenny missed and the dark haired boy almost smirked. It shouldn't amuse him, really, but playing with the blonde was so easy.

Kenny seemed to be working intently on something, though, after a few seconds, Craig could see that something was his phone. His own phone was already clutched in his hand, waiting for the vibrate setting to announce another message. Three...two...one...

_I've got icing here and I'm not afraid to use it inappropriately._

Craig gave a short chuckle, stifling it when his co-worker Reggie glanced over at him and turned away to reply with, _Gross, McCormick, that goes on the food you sell. Now stop texting me and work._

Kenny shot Craig a wide grin and Craig returned with another raised middle finger. Unfortunately, at that moment, a customer came up to ask for more product and Craig's co-worker started barking off directions which meant Kenny once again had to amuse himself by pretending to work. Just anotherfour hours, he thought, though it wasn't much comfort.

000000000

"You piece of shit!"

"I'm not the piece of shit, you are!"

Ah. The sound of parenthood.

Kenny didn't even bother alerting his parents to his homecoming, closing the door behind him and heading straight upstairs. He wasn't sure what his parents were arguing about, nor did he care. All of their fights lately were about petty and uninteresting things. Like when mom left the butter in the fridge and dad ruined three slices of bread trying to smear the solid product across. Apparently that had been fight worthy.

Kenny headed to his room, catching sight of his younger sister Karen sitting on her bed with her bedroom door open. She had her knees curled up against her chest and was looking with sightless eyes out into the hallway. She didn't even see Kenny until he made a point of waving vigorously in her direction.

"Ken." Karen whispered, unfurling herself from her position on the bed to make her way into the hall. "They've been fighting for hours."

Kenny smiled sadly and shrugged.

"It's what they do. Come on, I'll let'cha use my headphones." Kenny had bought noise cancelling headphones with the first check he'd received from the store, preferring to hear his music without parental accompaniment. Karen followed him into his room and Kenny shut the door, rummaging around in his desk drawers for his iPod and headphones to hand to Karen.

While Karen situated herself on the floor and slid the over-the-ear headphones on, wordlessly perusing Kenny's playlist, Kenny set about getting out of his work clothes.

Karen kept her eyes on the iPod, knowing that Kenny wasn't shy about his body with anyone, but still preferring he not be so open around this particular family. She selected some rock song she thought she recognized and bobbed her head to the music.

Kenny slid on a pair of dark jeans and a black T-shirt, not bothering to even check his clean drawers and instead just grabbing whatever wasn't totally dirty from the floor. By the sounds of downstairs, the fighting had escalated into actual blows. Casting a glance at Karen, Kenny motioned with hand signs that he'd be back in a few minutes. Karen nodded but didn't say anything.

A list of things he'd rather be doing than breaking up another parental fight came to Kenny's mind as he descended the stairs. Eating worms. Sticking nails in his hand. Working eleven hours instead of eight. But enough of that. Kenny spotted his mother taking a swing at his father and hurried forward to catch his mother's wrist.

"Kenny, you let go of me right now, your father deserves this!"

Kenny just shoot his head and directed his reply to the both of them

"You two have a daughter upstairs that needs you to pull your shit together. Yelling is one thing, but if you keep beating the shit out of each other, she's going to be taken away from you and sent to parents who can do their fucking jobs right." Kenny's voice was calm, but laced with disdain. How many times did he appear to them in the guise of Mysterion as a kid and how many times now as their own son would he have to play peacekeeper?

"Don't you curse at us, we are your fucking parents!" It was dad who spoke up this time.

"I learned from the fucking best." Kenny couldn't help the retort that slipped out and immediately knew keeping the peace was beyond his control now.

With his hand still clasped around his mother's wrist, he couldn't block well enough when a heavy fist came at him from the man he was unlucky enough to call a father. He sucked in a sharp breath and felt an extraordinary sting from where his dad's fist had met his cheek. He'd tolerated pain enough not to give in with a sob or a cry, but fuck did it ever hurt.

Kenny released his mom's bony wrist and ducked out of the way as his father swung again. The punch missed Kenny and caught his mom on the shoulder and they were off at each other again like Kenny hadn't even been there. Involuntary tears welled up in Kenny's eyes from the pain in his face and he ran back up the stairs two at a time to get to his room.

Karen was still there, listening to music and Kenny quickly gathered up his phone and car keys. His movement caught Karen's attention and her eyes widened as her eyes fell to the mark that was already forming over Kenny's skin. She moved to pull the headphones over her head but Kenny ducked down and stopped her, his own hands keeping the headphones in place. He opened up the notepad feature on his phone and typed out, _'Going out for a bit. Stay up here and don't take off the headphones until I come home.'_

Karen nodded, worry crossing her face and she nervously scooted herself over to press her back into the siding of Kenny's bed, eyes on the door as her brother slipped out and closed it behind him.

No one stopped Kenny leaving the house. Though Kenny highly doubted if his parents could see anything with the way they were beating up on each other. He wrenched open his car door and fell into the drivers seat, plugging the keys into the ignition and shutting the door. As the car hummed idly in the driveway, Kenny allowed himself a minute to breathe. He pressed a hand to his face and hissed at the new wave of pain that came from that.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Kenny cursed, leaning forward to rest his head on the steering wheel. Quiet sobs overtook him for a moment, his shoulders shaking but no tears fell. He inhaled slowly, trying to get under control again and knew Karen was probably watching him from his bedroom window. She would worry about him until he came home, but right now he couldn't sit and comfort her. He needed to be distracted right now and that desire was the one that possessed him to flip open his phone and dial Craig Tucker's number.

"Hello?" Was the emotionless response that told Kenny he had the right number.

"Craig." Kenny started, his voice nearly cracking, but he cleared his throat and tried again. "Craig, do you have time tonight?"

"I just saw you for eight hours at work and you want more? Jesus, McCormick-"

Before Craig could finish whatever undoubtedly witty comeback he was setting up, Kenny interrupted.

"Stark's Pond, soon as you can." Kenny hung up and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat, taking the car out of Park and rolling in reverse down the driveway.

Stark's Pond was only about a ten minute walk from his house, but Kenny didn't feel like walking right now. If he passed anyone he knew while walking, they'd see his face and ask questions. Or even worse, say nothing. Because everyone knew what happened at the McCormick household. It was no surprise when Kenny had new bruises. His friends had offered to return the favor to his parents more times than Kenny could count but he had declined every offer. There was no point in returning violence with more violence. It would only broaden the McCormick fight circle and a dysfunctional family was better than a whole town on fight-standby.

Making it to the pond, Kenny parked the car against the sidewalk and made his way to the small bench he and his friends used to sit on as kids. It was tiny and he had to sit almost to the ground, his legs fully outstretched in front of him, but at least it wasn't crawling with bugs. Kenny closed his eyes and once again placed a hand to his cheek. It still stung, but he was prepared for it this time. He kept pressure there, losing himself in the pain and eventually it didn't feel like pain anymore. He poked at the skin and it offered little more than a dull aching sensation.

"What did you drag me out of the house for, McCormick?"

A voice brought Kenny out of his masochistic torment and he turned to see Craig approaching the bench. Where Kenny was ten minutes away, Craig was only about five because he was farther from the ghetto and closer to the main town.

Kenny stood and without thinking, lifted up his shirt, dropping it onto the bench instead. Craig arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

"I need you to distract me." Kenny said, opening his arms and motioning for Craig to come closer.

"Here? In public." Craig asked, his disgust for public displays of affection obvious in every single letter of the words he spoke.

"It's late. No one's out." Kenny said, scowling though the expression brought back the dull ache.

"You've got some nerve." Craig frowned, but he stepped forward and curled his fingers around each of Kenny's wrists.

"I've got a lot more than nerve." Kenny said.

Craig studied Kenny's face and his expression sobered as soon as he caught the finer details of his companion. The darkened patch on his face. The glazed over look in his eyes. Craig sighed. No amount of back talk was going to convince Kenny that what he was asking of Craig wouldn't solve his problems.

Knowing that, Craig pulled Kenny closer, using his grip on the boy's wrists to wind Kenny's arms around his waist. Kenny could feel Craig's breath on him before the dark haired boy acted and lips and teeth met the skin at Kenny's neck. Kenny let Craig take control this time, pleased that Craig hadn't decided to walk away at the request.

Kenny felt Craig pull him closer, winding his arms around Kenny's shoulders, even as he pressed kisses to every part of the blonde he could reach. Craig's fingers trailed down Kenny's back and he shivered pleasantly at the feeling.

Lost in the kisses that felt almost nonexistent in contrast to the punch to the face, Kenny tried to reciprocate as best he could, but it hurt. His cheek would press into Craig's shoulder or against his bony jaw and it would send Kenny reeling again with an ache that seemed to be leaking into a migraine.

Kenny felt something press into the crook behind his knee and one leg buckled after another. He gasped, but found himself caught still in Craig's grip, being lowered down onto the bench.

"You wanted to be distracted so lay still." Craig instructed. Kenny was going to remark on the wood being uncomfortable against his back, but as his humor began to return, it was replaced with an innuendo and he cracked a small smile.

Craig missed it. His eyes and lips and pretty much everything else were focused on other parts of Kenny's body and soon enough, the blonde felt himself responding. Thanks to the pain, his body was now hyper sensitive to everything Craig was doing so every bite or scrape of the dark haired boy's fingernails was like an electric shock.

Distracting others was something Craig did well, apparently.

Kenny felt a hand palm him through his jeans and he whimpered, much to his own embarrassment. God, what was he, twelve? He cleared his throat and gave a soft groan, more to cover up than out of actual pleasure. Craig didn't seem to care one way or the other and simply continued, eventually drawing the zipper down and popping the button all on his own this time.

"Are my pants easier this time when I'm not jerking you off?" Kenny asked, unable to resist a little jibe now that he was slowly returning to normal.

"Oh so now he wants to be funny." Craig replied with disinterest, sliding his hand under the jeans and inching them down by Kenny's knees, shortly followed by the plain briefs he'd worn that day. Kenny's breath hitched in his throat as Craig took a grip on his length.

Craig's rhythm wasn't particularly complex, but it was enough. Kenny remembered the warmth of his hand from the time before, and now that his hand was working alone, Kenny felt it again. Seriously, what was Craig? A human heater? Kenny wondered if Craig would still be this warm in the winter. Which led him to wonder if they'd be up to this all the way until winter. It was only spring, so far, they had so much time to go and South Park was unpredicta-...and now it didn't matter.

Kenny let out a choked sound as he felt something even warmer and definitely wetter close around his dick. He risked a glance down to see that Craig had replaced his hand with his mouth. Holy fuck. A second noise escaped him, much more from surprise than anything, but Craig took it as an encouraging sound and hummed softly in return.

"Oh fuck." Kenny said aloud, his head falling back onto the bench with a thud and bringing about another twinge of pain in his head. The throbbing of his head and the swirl of pleasure that was curling its way through Kenny's gut fought it out and nearly made it impossible to retain consciousness. The pressure of the bench against his head and the occasional bumps as he rocked himself involuntarily with Craig's efforts was causing little white spots to form in front of his vision and he worried for a second that he might actually pass out.

Luckily another hum from Craig forced Kenny to focus on that and he reached forward to grip at Craig's hair. The dark haired boy seemed irritated by the gesture, but Kenny gasped out, "C-coming." and Craig got the message. He pulled off from Kenny and continued with his hand once more until Kenny came, a low growl of contentment filling the silence of the pond grounds.

Had it been under different circumstances, Kenny might have felt embarrassed or even annoyed that he hadn't lasted that long or that he hadn't tried to help Craig, but right now he couldn't give a rat's ass. He caught his breath on the bench, watching lazily as Craig wiped his hand on the grass and sat down near him, digging in his pockets for something.

Kenny lifted his head to see when Craig pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a small orange lighter.

"You smoke?" He asked, looking around for something to clean himself up with.

"Occasionally." Craig answered.

Not wanting to ruin another t-shirt, Kenny slid out of his pants and briefs and made his way down to the pond.

"You're not going to swim in that, are you?" Craig asked, arching an eyebrow again.

"Just a little bit. Unless you want to give me your shirt this time." Kenny said, lowering himself into the pond and trudging out to see how deep he could get.

"Fuck that, I'll drown your ass myself before I ruin a shirt like that." Came Craig's reply, but the dark haired boy moved to the edge of the water to wait. "Want one?" He held up the pack of cigarettes and Kenny narrowed his eyes, as if judging the Tucker boy, before giving in and extending a hand.

"Yeah."

Craig lit one, taking a drag on it to get it started and handed it to Kenny as the blonde crawled back up to shallow water.

"Can't light it myself, huh?" Kenny asked, sticking the cigarette between his lips and floating back out.

"Don't want you dropping my only lighter in the pond." Craig shrugged, sitting down with his knees to his chest.

Craig's position suddenly reminded Kenny of Karen and his expression fell for a second. He lay on the water, watching Craig blow out puffs of grey clouds and doing the same above the water himself. It was nice just lounging here, even if he knew he'd have to go home soon to check on Karen. She wasn't a baby anymore, but neither was she capable of standing up to her parents. He didn't have the strength to swim, but it didn't seem to matter as there was no tide and he drifted idly around safe waters.

"How come you didn't ask me what was wrong?" Kenny asked quietly after a few minutes of floating around.

Craig shrugged.

"If you wanted someone to pat you on the back and ask you why the bad man punched you, you'd have called up Stan or Kyle." Craig answered logically enough, which actually surprised Kenny.

And not the part about Craig knowing he'd gotten punched; it was no surprise to see that Craig was among the residents who knew of the McCormick beatings.

"Fair enough." Kenny replied, wondering vaguely what Stan and Kyle were up to right now. If he'd gone to them with this, they'd have offered once more to take over the role of peace keeping. Stan might have even tried to go over to his house. Kyle would be the one taking care of his bruise and telling him to put ice on it. He could almost hear Kyle's exasperated voice as he tried to tell Kenny not to get involved in his parent's fights. Their concern was genuine but it wouldn't help. Nothing would, really.

Kenny found his train of thought cut off as quickly as his air supply when something pushed him down under the pond surface. He sputtered and thrashed about, making contact with something solid before that something yanked him back up to the surface. Kenny blinked and coughed up water, reaching around to shove away from his bonds and push his hair out of his face. His cigarette floated away, but it wasn't important anymore. The thing was a figure and more so a figure with black hair.

"Craig! What the fuck, you asshole!" Kenny shouted, his voice echoing around the nearly empty grounds.

"You said you wanted to be distracted." Craig was still fully clothed and without his own cigarette, Kenny saw, but the tiniest hint of a smirk bent the corners of his lips upwards and the dark haired boy reached forward again to wrap his arms around Kenny and tug him under water again.

Kenny yelped as he fell, but had the sense to suck in a breath before he was submerged again. Craig let go of him underwater and disappeared from immediate grasp, leaving Kenny to kick his way to the surface again. They were almost at the drop off near the middle of the lake and the water was up to their necks. Craig had submerged his chin and mouth so only the top of his head was visible and Kenny couldn't help it. He laughed.

"You're such a fucktard." He said, splashing Craig and receiving one back almost immediately.

"You clean yet?" Craig asked, sending another wave at his companion while Kenny struggled to keep his hair and water out of his eyes.

"Yeah, no thanks to you." He said, trying without luck to block the water with his arm.

"Good let's get out. This pond is disgusting." Craig said, standing up properly and wading towards shallow water.

"I agree." Kenny said, but instead of following Craig's example, he lunged forward and tackled Craig back under the water. Craig lost his footing and clawed his way free of Kenny to resurface, gasping in a breath of air and shouting, "McCormick!"

"Hey, fair's fair, you got me and now I got you." Kenny said, suddenly spurred into song, "I got you, babe~"

Craig looked like he was about to throw up and made a gagging noise to prove it.

"Sing that again, I swear you'll never get anything from me again." Craig threatened and shook his head, shaking water droplets from his hair.

"You know, you're pretty sexy when you're wet." Kenny said, wading forward and resting his arms around Craig's neck loosely.

"Well you're back to normal, I say we head home." Craig's expression was just as disinterested as ever.

"Thanks, Craig." Kenny said, his tone genuine and despite Craig's disgusted look, he leaned forward to press his lips to Craig's cheek.

"Gross, dude." Craig pushed Kenny off of him and made his way to the grass again. "Get dressed, for fuck sake."

Kenny obeyed, though his clothes stuck to him uncomfortably. Brilliant idea, that swimming thing was. Kenny complained loudly to Craig, who scowled in response.

"Ugh, my jeans are sticking to my legs! Fuck, my underwear's all wet now." Kenny made a show of it, knowing it would annoy Craig and sure enough, the dark haired boy turned to walk away. Kenny hurried to catch up with him, realizing he now had to drive home wet. "Aw, my car's gonna get wet."

Craig turned on his heel and grabbed Kenny's shoulders.

"Stop. Complaining." He said through his teeth, and Kenny gave a small smile, wincing as the pain in his cheek began to come back to full attention. Craig paused for a moment and sighed, rolling his eyes in a very unreasonable fashion. Kenny was about to tell him off but Craig leaned in and pressed a nearly nonexistent kiss to his injured cheek.

"Seriously, go home and sleep or something. Stop being a hero, you're not ten years old anymore." Craig said, his voice low. He let go of Kenny and stuffed his hands in his pockets, having a little difficulty since his pants were soaking wet. As he walked away, he called back, "By the way, you get one of those. Don't expect me to be all lovey dovey with you now just cos I kissed you."

Kenny just stared for a minute, momentarily too stunned for words. A thought crept into his head and he recovered in time to say, "A real man would have kissed me before blowing me!".

A middle finger was his only response and Kenny gave one back, though Craig hadn't even bothered to turn around and wouldn't have seen it. Kenny reluctantly looked back at his car and moved around to slide back into the driver's seat. His body was humming from both the pain and Craig's efforts and all in all, he didn't feel so bad anymore. If he could sneak upstairs without his dad seeing him, the night might actually end okay.

With that thought, he started up the car and drove home the long way.


	3. Chapter 3

Kenny had memorized his ceiling long ago. Many nights spent bored out of his mind and staring off into space had made every spec and every crevice very obvious to him. There was a patch of plaster or something that had congealed in the shape of a heart and another that Kenny kept giggling at because it kind of looked like a penis.

But today, the ceiling offered something new. Something Kenny most certainly did not want. Seriously, how long had that spider been there?

"Fuck you and your creepy legs, spider." Kenny said and thrust the bottle he held in his hand up with gusto to crush the spider between it and the ceiling. The body stuck to the bottle but an ugly black smear was on his ceiling now. "Gross."

Kenny had called in sick to work after discovering the ugly purple facial discoloration that had formed overnight. He'd expected to be sore, but this was ridiculous. He was used to dying and nobody finding out, that was a regular thing in South Park, but visible bruising and scarring always caught attention and Kenny hated that more than dying.

Falling back down off the step ladder, he tossed the bottle and spider guts in the trash and lazily moved the ladder back to the corner of his room with well placed kicks and shoving it back with his knee. He'd been up for a total of...Kenny glanced at the clock...four hours now and he was bored.

He'd sent Craig a few text messages and kept getting _'Don't bother me, I'm working, unlike you' _in return. The hum of his phone alerted him and he dropped heavily onto his bed to snatch his cell phone up from the covers. Sure enough, Craig had sent him something equally boring to his last text.

_If you're really sick, go to sleep._

Kenny would have scowled. In fact, he tried. But it hurt and he quickly gave up in favor or holding the phone above him and taking a mediocre quality picture of himself pouting. A few clicks on the keypad later and he'd sent it to Craig with the caption, _I AM sick, look at how miserable I am._

A second passed. And then another. And then several others while Kenny looked blankly at his phone and just barely resisted the urge to just play a game on his phone while he waited, but soon enough Craig's text would interrupt the game and then...

_You always look miserable._

Kenny actually grinned a little at that and sent back, _Can't tell if being mean or sympathetic_.

_Both?_

Such was the nature of Craig Tucker.

Kenny could never tell via text if he truly annoyed Craig and it was a little irking. He could always tell with Kyle or Stan because they'd suddenly resort to using capitals to text-yell at him or delve into curse words that would put Kenny's parents to shame.

Kenny found himself scanning his contacts list and halfheartedly selected Kyle Broflovski from the list. Maybe just today he could use some over-protective friend attention to cheer him up. His parents were at what they called work, but was much more like community service sentenced for the rest of their lives until late tonight, so he was alone in the house. He wasn't sure where Kevin went, he never was, but Karen had agreed to stay at a friend's house and had some camping trip planned for the next week. So it was either alone or friends...

_Hey, dude, what's up?_

Kenny would take friends. Alone was boring and four hours had done very well to prove that. He barely had to wait a full minute before Kyle had sent something back.

_Not much. Why you ask?_

Kenny typed in two words and hit send before climbing up from the bed to get dressed. The phone hummed at him as he was pulling on a pair of jeans and the screen lit up with a preview of the return text. Which was really just the whole text as in response to Kenny's _'Come over', _Kyle had simply sent back, _'Okay'._

000000000

"You make such a good housewife, Stan." Kenny remarked, lounging over the kitchen table and watching his dark haired friend flip sandwiches on the frying pan.

"I practice." Was Stan's response, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

After Kyle had accepted his offer, Kenny had extended the same one to Stan Marsh, knowing that he'd come regardless but preferring to invite him all the same. Whenever Kyle knew something, Stan knew about it within the following hour. They were just close like that. It was something Kenny had almost envied. He'd never considered having a friend that close, but after having thought about it, he supposed Kyle was sort of like that with him as well. Not to the same extent, but Kenny still knew more about Kyle than Eric Cartman would ever know and had actually been the first, even above Stan, to know that Kyle swung for both teams.

Though it was fairly obvious now, as said red head re-entered the kitchen and moved to loop an arm around Stan's waist from behind. It was because of these two finally evolving their relationship that Kenny had even thought up the deal he had now with Craig.

"Hey, Kyle. I was just saying what a lovely housewife you have." Kenny cracked a grin, putting on a show of formal politeness.

"Isn't he, though?" Kyle said in return, poking Stan's side before moving to sit at the table with Kenny.

"You know, just today I was thinking 'Why don't I go over to Kenny's house more often?'," Stan started, an exaggerated tone present to his voice though he was grinning all the same. "And then I remembered. Because Kenny's a dick."

Kenny narrowed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, to which Stan returned by sticking out his own tongue.

"Now, now, children." Kyle interrupted their teasing and loudly pushed his chair closer to Kenny's.

"Don't you two be trying anything while I'm slaving away over here." Stan joked and it was Kyle's turn to stick out his tongue.

"I'll do whatever I want, thank you very much. But that wasn't where I was going with this, I wanted to see Kenny's bruise."

Kenny flinched as he saw Kyle's fingers close to his face, but he reluctantly let his friend idly poke at the bruise.

"Seriously, Ken." Kyle's voice had taken on that sympathetic tone he so far exclusively used when he was comforting Kenny.

"I know, I know. Don't get involved, right?" Kenny returned, laying his arms and chin on the kitchen table as Kyle stood up to rummage through his freezer. In almost practiced time, Kyle had wrapped a few ice cubes into a clean kitchen cloth and sat back down to press the make shift ice pack to Kenny's cheek. It really wouldn't help the swelling or discoloration at this point, but the cold seeping into his skin was enough to numb some of the pain.

"Well, if you've got my advice so well rehearsed, why don't you use it more often?" Kyle teased, gripping Kenny's wrist and pulling one hand out from under his chin to hold the ice in place.

"Because you know it's impossible advice." Kenny arched an eyebrow at his friend. "You've known me for how long and you honestly think-"

"I know you don't step down from protecting people, Kenny, I just really wish you would." Kyle interrupted, silencing Kenny. "I've had to patch you up far too many times because you're too fucking stubborn to go to the hospital or just stay out of a fight."

"So we've got the housewife and the doctor." Kenny said, unsure if he was more frustrated or happy that Kyle acted as his protector.

Stan sighed dramatically and returned with, "If he comes to me covered in blood and you've died on the operating table, I'd suggest seeing a REAL doctor next time."

"Hey!"

Kenny almost hated them for how easy it was for them to make him smile and he easily looped his free arm around Kyle's waist and leaned on his friend.

"Aww, for what it's worth, I think you make a great doctor, Kyle."

This was how things usually went. As Kenny rested against Kyle and felt his friend absently playing with his hair, he realized neither of them had had a really serious conversation in a long time. They defused the situation with humor; it was all they could do. Kyle could clean Kenny's wounds all he wanted and it still wouldn't solve the problem so making one another laugh had been the only other option.

As Stan served up lunch, Kenny actively tried to keep the mood up. He'd squeeze Kyle closer to him when he knew Stan was watching and even went so far as to make Stan feed him the first bite of sandwich, claiming it hurt too much to eat on his own. The latter quickly stopped when Stan made a huge show of serving Kenny the tiniest pieces of bread like he was a bird and a minor food fight with bread bits ensued.

It was after lunch before a serious topic was brought up again.

"Do you want to come stay with me for a bit, Ken?"

Kenny blinked at Kyle like he was an alien.

"Is there room?" He asked, to which Kyle responded with an exaggerated look of disapproval.

"It's a two bedroom place, we've got a big living room and if you don't want that, you can have my bed." Kyle said, putting the last of the dishes into the sink and ushering them both into the living room that was just as messy as every other room Kenny's parents inhabited.

"Never asks me to come live with him." Stan teased, playfully jabbing Kenny's side. "Feel lucky."

"Screw you, you always complain about my room mate, why would I ask you to stay with me?" Kyle said in return before looking at Kenny again. "Clyde's out most of the time anyway though, I don't think he'll mind."

Kenny narrowed his eyes and made a huge show of humming and pretending to think really hard. He could hear Kyle go, "Oh god." and could practically feel his friend rolling his eyes, but he continued the show, falling over onto the couch and finally responding with, "I guess."

Kenny knew that this was Kyle's best attempt at keeping him away from the violence at home and had Karen not already been in a safer place, Kenny would have refused. But he had no one to protect here right now and without Karen, home wasn't a nice place to be. So why not?

"Are you gonna cook for me every night?" Kenny asked.

"We order in a lot. Or Clyde cooks." Kyle shrugged. "I think he's much better at it than me."

"Kyle long ago mastered the skills of doctors and technology, he has no room in that brain for silly house work." Stan smirked, settling into the reclining chair that Kenny's dad had purchased on a whim but rarely every used.

"That's what I've got you for, sweetie." Kyle replied, reaching over to mess up Stan's hair, his tone conveying sarcasm that made Kenny chuckle.

"I feel like you two would make excellent parents." Kenny said, nodding as if he was agreeing with himself.

"And you're our adopted kid?" Kyle asked, sitting down on the floor next to the couch Kenny lounged on. "We take care of you enough, it works."

"Oh, oh, can I change my name to Kenny Broflovski?" Kenny raised his hand enthusiastically, even if the name kind of made him want to shudder. It just didn't fit.

"Why not Kenny Marsh?" Stan asked.

"We've already established you as the woman in this relationship." Kyle shrugged.

"Fuck you." Stan flipped them both off and Kenny laughed.

Though he teased about Stan, Kenny believed the relationship to be the opposite. Stan may have been more house oriented, but Kyle was definitely the protective mother type. The two would make great lesbians, but Kenny would never say that out loud...the two would probably punch him.

"So, you wanna go get a bag together and we can head to my place?" Kyle asked, bringing Kenny out of some very strange thoughts of what Stan and Kyle would look like as lesbians.

"Huh? Oh, sure. I'll be right back." Kenny said, pushing himself up and expertly moving over the back of the couch so he could get to the stairs without stepping on Kyle.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Kenny wondered if this could be a bad thing. Would his parents freak out that he was missing? Would they even notice that he was missing? He thanked the gods that Kyle hadn't made his moving out with Clyde Donovan common knowledge because even if his parents wanted to come drag him away, not many people would know where Kenny would be staying.

Grabbing his old school backpack out from the closet, he began to fill it with clean clothes and pajama bottoms. He tossed his car keys and iPod in as an afterthought. He might be found out by his car, but so far as he knew, Kyle didn't drive so without Stan around to ferry them places, Kenny would need his own ride.

Kenny descended the staircase with considerably more enthusiasm, happy at the thought of just getting away for a bit. He noticed, once he reached the bottom of the stairs, that Kyle had re-situated himself on the arm of the reclining chair next to Stan and called out, "Don't you two be making out when I get there."

"Shut up, Kenny." Stan called back.

Kenny gestured towards the door, backpack slung over his shoulder.

"Should we go? I need to take my car so I'll follow you guys."

Kyle nodded and the two of them stood up, Stan sticking his hand in his pocket to find his car keys. His parents had been kind to him and chipped in for half of his Passat, something Kenny had been envious of before he'd come to love his Tercel.

Kenny locked the front door on his way out, though he hardly needed to. It wasn't like they had anything worth stealing. His car was probably the most expensive thing here, even as a used car, and he slid into the driver's seat, suddenly realizing he needed to take it for another reason. Aside from just having transportation...if his parents DID get mad and couldn't find him, his car would be in danger of some serious repairs. He plugged the keys in and started the car with more vigor than he probably should have.

As Stan pulled out from the driveway, Kenny tried to stick close, not wanting cars to creep in between them and lose sight of where the hell he was supposed to be going, He'd only been to Kyle's once before when they'd first moved in to help Kyle move boxes of his stuff. Kyle didn't have guests often, but then again, Kenny supposed Kyle spent most of his time working or over at Stan's house anyway.

The place was nice, he remembered that. Spacious, though there hadn't been any furniture in it then so of course it was. It took all of fifteen minutes to get there and Kenny drove slow into the parking lot, trying to take in what the front of the apartments looked like. They were a sort of a light tan color with pale green siding and door frames, large windows and at least three of the floors higher up had small decks for each room.

Kyle leaned out of Stan's passenger window and called out to Kenny, "We're gonna park in the spot Clyde reserves underground, can you find a visitors up here and I'll get you a pass so the landlord doesn't tow you?"

Kenny waved to show that he'd heard and found a parking space marked VISITOR near the side of the building. He waited until he saw Kyle round the corner from the underground parking entryway before he got out and locked his car.

"So I need a pass?" Kenny asked.

"Yeah, they like to know if visitors stay over for more than a day cos if some random stranger just hijacks a parking spot for no reason, they can get towed away." Kyle answered, shrugging and pulling out his keys to unlock the front door. He headed off alone while Stan and Kenny waited in the lobby to wherever the manager must have had an office and he came back with a plastic pad that read VISITOR on it.

Kenny took it and ran out to his car, slipping the card under his windshield wipers before ducking back into the building as Kyle held the door open.

Kyle and Clyde lived on the third floor, one of the higher ones in the building since it only had five floors. The elevator was small and uncomfortable, in Kenny's opinion, but the building's interior was nice and calm, so he supposed it was tolerable. 315 was the number on the door Kyle went to unlock next and he let Kenny enter first. Now that the furniture was down and the place looked lived in, Kenny was actually impressed at Kyle's place. It was relatively clean, save for the bag of chips and an empty energy drink can on the living room table, not too far from an Xbox Kenny was sure Kyle had been playing before he'd invited him over.

There was a hallway that led in both directions before you entered the living room; one direction led to the bathrooms and closet spaces and the other led to the bedrooms. Kyle and Clyde's bedrooms were across from one another, but vastly different on the inside. Kenny peered around the corners, opening the bedroom doors while Kyle shoved his shoes into the main hall closet.

Clyde's room was dark and messy, clothes covering the bed like he slept on them...which, with how much Clyde worked these days, he might as well do. In sharp contrast to Clyde's room, Kyle had picked the one with the window leading to the front deck and his room was bright and in order.

"Nice, huh?" Kyle asked, noticing Kenny's exploration.

"It definitely looks a lot nicer when it's not in boxes." Kenny said with a small grin and closed the doors again, heading back into the living room.

"Yeah, the couch folds out too, so you'd have an actual bed if you wanted to sleep here." Kyle said, gesturing to the dark blue couch that Kenny promptly went to sit on.

"Ah, fold out couches. Saving poor people from having to choose between sitting or laying since forever." Kenny sighed contentedly. The couch was comfy. Soooo comfy...

"Don't fall asleep now." Stan said, sitting next to Kenny and leaning forward to sneak a chip from the left over bag. "Hey, they're not even all that stale."

Kyle sent him a withering look, but shrugged and settled onto the last bit of couch remaining next to Stan. He propped his legs up over Stan's and the darker haired boy smiled at him in return.

"Thanks for offering me your place, Kyle." Kenny said, knowing it was polite to say, but also knowing that Kyle's exact response was going to be...

"It's what friends do, don't thank me." Exactly that. Kenny smiled. Kyle was predictable when it came to these things, but it wasn't a bad quality.

Kenny relaxed into the couch as Stan reached over Kyle to get the remote to turn on the television. He didn't care what Stan put on, as long as no one kicked him off this couch. When had Kyle bought this and why hadn't he crashed here earlier? He glanced over at his bag next to him and pulled it closer to look for his cell phone. He turned it on and saw, with something very close to amusement, that he had a missed message.

_Work is boring. Get better so you can be bored with me._

Kenny typed out a quick response to Craig and turned his phone off. He was going to fall asleep on the couch, he knew it, and a nap would be nice right about now anyway.

0000000

**Author's Note:**

I'm going to try and get a chapter out every week. This chapter is to make up for last week and with any luck I'll get another one out before the end of this week to be fair :)


	4. Chapter 4

What was that noise? Kenny clenched his eyes shut tighter and listened. Seriously, what made that much noise in the morning? After several minutes of nothing coming to mind, Kenny reluctantly opened his eyes and blinked stupidly as he tried to remember where the hell he was. Since when did he sleep in front of a television on a fold out-...ooohhh right.

Kenny propped himself up on his elbow and looked over across the hall to the kitchen where a very familiar red head was making toast. Kyle was dressed in a pair of boxers and an overly baggy T-shirt and Kenny realized it had been a long time since he'd slept over at Kyle's place. The two used to wear formal pajamas, as if hiding their body from one another, but Kenny guessed as they'd aged, it had stopped mattering. Or, more accurately, it had stopped mattering to Kyle. Being clothed or unclothed had never been a big issue for Kenny.

"Morning?" Kyle called, barely looking up from his plate as he smeared some form of jam across the toast.

"Morning." Kenny answered, sitting up properly and yawning. "Thought I'd been kidnapped for a minute."

"Oh yeah, I like to keep my hostages on my couch, it makes them think they're safe." Kyle said with a smile and held up a second plate. "You want some toast? It's about all I can cook well, unless you want instant noodles."

"Toast sounds good." Kenny nodded, lazily falling back onto the fold out bed and throwing the blankets up over him so only his head was poking out from the sheets. "What time is it?"

It took a minute for Kyle to answer, a minute Kenny guessed was spent eying the clock on the stove.

"Ten thirty four." Kyle eventually responded. "I got up at eight, but you were still passed out so I read for a bit on the deck. It's nice and sunny out today."

"Huzzah." Kenny replied without much interest. The weather wasn't a big deal to him. Sunny or rainy, he had a car that modified the temperature to whatever he wanted. "Clyde go to work already?"

"Yeah. He leaves around six in the morning. I think I'd kill myself if I had to work that early all the time." Kyle mused aloud.

Yesterday after Kenny's nap, he'd woken up to find that Stan had gone home and Clyde Donovan had taken his place up on the couch. Kyle had retreated elsewhere and Kenny had momentarily been afraid to say anything that would alert Clyde to him being there.

Eventually though, Clyde had asked if he'd wanted a beer or something, explaining that Kyle had spoken to him about the living arrangements and agreed that it was better for Kenny to be here than at home. The two had drank together for at least two hours, watching the comedy channel, before Kyle came back out of his room and the three of them took turns playing video games until late.

"Poor kid." Kenny mumbled, feeling the fatigue settle back within him and he nearly fell asleep again. At least, he would have if Kyle hadn't chosen that particular time to come to the couch and hand Kenny a plate.

"Move over." Kyle said, throwing the blankets back and idly shoving Kenny's arm until the blonde shifted his body over to let Kyle slip in beside him.

"Oh, Kyle, I didn't know you were so forward." Kenny said with a sleepy grin and received another shove in response. Kyle took up the remote and flicked the tv on, channel surfing until he found the music channel with a show that had little bubbles popping up with information about music videos. Kenny didn't want to pay attention, in fact he wanted to go back to sleep, but with food and the curiosity over what the bubbles were saying, he couldn't. He pushed himself up and put the plate on his lap over the covers, taking small bites as he read the info.

"So I was thinking we could just hang out here today. I figure it'd be a good time to get you sort of used to the place." Kyle suggested, distracting Kenny from reading about how many times some rapper had been arrested.

"Okay. Are there any rules I should know about?" Kenny asked.

"Well, at first I was going to say no, but then I remembered who I'm lending a bed to. No one gets in this bed besides you or me. I don't mind housing you, feeding you or even cleaning up after you, but that courtesy is limited to you and you alone." Kyle said.

At first, Kenny would have taken offense...but he knew as well as Kyle did that it was a valid point to mention. He was kind of sort of having a fling with a certain black haired boy, so it wasn't obscene to think that Kyle might not want to have a whole bunch of explicit action going on in his house. However, one particular set of words made him chuckle...

"So if you and I get in this bed together...that's okay?" Kenny teased, trailing a finger up Kyle's arm.

"Sweet jesus, there's no stopping you, is there?" Kyle asked, but he smiled all the same and smacked Kenny's hand away.

"It's my nature." Kenny said, taking another bite of toast and continuing to speak through the mouthful. "Can't stop it now. What would Stan say if I-"

"Seriously?" Kyle laughed, looking at Kenny with wide eyes. "Really, dude? Gonna go there?"

Kenny finished his toast and flashed a smile at his friend.

"I go everywhere, bro."

The two finished up the program, which Kenny later learned was called Pop Up Video, and Kyle put the dishes in the dishwasher while Kenny went to the bathroom to change and run a brush hastily through his hair. He really didn't have a particular style, but it tangled like crazy if he didn't keep up with the brush.

When Kenny came out of the bathroom, Kyle had gone missing. Kenny narrowed his eyes. The kid had red hair, how did he ninja away like that so effectively?

"Kyle?" Kenny called, too lazy to look for him.

"I'm in my room." Kyle returned and the sound of a sliding door alerted Kenny to the fact that Kyle was probably going to enjoy the sun he'd mentioned earlier on the deck that he had somehow managed to convince Clyde to let him have.

Kenny tossed his pajama bottoms onto the fold out couch and stuffed his hands in his black jean pockets before idly making his way to Kyle's room. Jesus, the bed was made and it hardly looked any different from when Kenny had seen it last night. Only difference was Kyle's clothes from yesterday on the floor, having barely missed the box Kyle seemed to be using for laundry.

Kyle had set up the little deck space with one chair and a small table that held a single book on top of it. Kenny noticed the bookmark was halfway through the pages and wondered exactly how much of that had been accomplished while he'd been sleeping in. He stepped out onto the deck and Kyle looked up, taking his feet off the railing casing them in and saying, "You want me to get another chair? I can take the table inside."

"Naw, it's fine." Kenny waved a hand dismissively and situated himself in the corner, resting his elbows on either side of the railing. "It's pretty nice, what you've got set up here."

"I like it." Kyle agreed, putting his feet back up and slouching down in the seat.

"Has your mom been up here at all?" Kenny asked. The gang rarely saw the Broflovski's aside from Kyle anymore. Not that they really wanted to; the only reason they'd ever hung out with the family was because of Kyle being there.

"She came to visit after we officially moved in and everything was set up, but she didn't stay long." Kyle shrugged. "She still doesn't like that I moved out."

"Isn't that a dream for most parents? 'My son or daughter moved out, they're growing up, I'm so proud!'." Kenny put on an exaggerated high pitched voice to mimic what must have been some proud mother.

Kyle gave a humorless sort of laugh and shook his head.

"Not my mom." Kyle said. "You know her. I was her only legitimate son, so now that Ike's starting to rebel, as teenagers do, she doesn't know what to do without me."

Kenny nodded. He'd seen Ike a few times, hanging out with friends from school. South Park Middle School was only a street or two away from the grocery store Kenny worked at, so every now and then the little brats would come in and buy energy drinks, which Kenny strongly believed Ike did not need at fourteen years old. How could a kid be tired all the time? Kenny himself used to stay up until three am and wake up at a decent hour perfectly rested when he was fourteen.

He'd written it off because Ike was Canadian by birth. Which was the default excuse whenever Ike misbehaved or acted strangely.

"How's Ike been?" Kenny asked.

"Ike's been a right little shit." Kyle said with a small grin he knew Kenny would see. "His grades are dropping and he's spending a lot of time with friends. Keeps saying YOLO and listening to Nicki Minaj and Weezy and whoever else sings about things that don't make any sense. I only know those two names because they're on the radio all the time."

Kenny laughed at that. Of course Ike did. Kenny knew what YOLO stood for because of people at work. Apparently "You Only Live Once" was today's generations motto. They seemed to believe in living life to the most extremes and Kenny knew this because he could see kids in town doing things he had done as a kid that had literally stunned audiences. Now, people were so desensitized to danger and stupidity that no one even looked over to see what the kids were doing. Kenny had little faith in what was to follow this generation, but he was sure the stupid people would be killed off very quickly.

Leaning back on the rail, Kenny looked up at the nearly cloudless sky. It really was nice out today, even if talking about Ike had reminded Kenny how stupid most of the human race was on a daily basis. Even today, under the blue sky with the sun shining but not cooking civilians, someone somewhere was doing something stupid. He wouldn't put it past his parents to be those someones.

"How's work been?"

Kyle's question brought Kenny back to the conversation and he sighed.

"Work's been work. I've sort of been hanging out with one of my co-workers, so I guess it's not all bad. But still, customer service blows." Kenny responded.

"I agree with you there." Kyle worked in a customer service job too, but it was more a call center than a grocery store. He took calls responding to people with computer issues and knew how to work a computer faster than anyone else Kenny had known. Having said that, Kenny realized he'd noticed a distinct lack of computer in Kyle's room and wondered if the boy had left it somewhere else or if he'd broken his laptop.

"What have you and the co-worker been up to?" Kyle's voice took on a strange tone and Kenny looked away from the cloud and back to him to see Kyle smirking at him.

"Oh, what, you think I can't hang out normally?" Kenny asked, acting offended but he couldn't help but be amused at how intuitive Kyle was.

"Dude, you fucked your boss at the last job you had." Kyle gave him a withering look in response.

"She asked for it." Kenny shrugged, grinning widely.

"Gross, Ken. But seriously, you don't have the best track record for 'just hanging out'." Kyle pressed. "I ask because I want to make sure you...it's hard to explain." Kyle sat up straighter in his chair and took his feet off the railing. "After things at home, I know you like to vent. I also know HOW you vent."

"You know an awful lot about me, sir. Who are you, who do you work for?" Kenny narrowed his eyes and Kyle tried to stifle a laugh. "But seriously," Kenny said, mimicking Kyle's words from before. "I'm fine. And my co-worker's fine and we haven't fucked yet. Not really."

"I don't even want to know what 'Not Really' is." Kyle held up a hand before Kenny could continue. "But okay." Kyle wouldn't ask, he was too polite for that, but Kenny knew by the glance his friend gave him that he was still curious about something.

"I made a deal with Craig Tucker; he works in meats. And I don't mean that kind of meats, but he's good at that too-" Kyle interrupted Kenny with a loud groan and a roll of his eyes, but he nodded and let Kenny continue. "We've been hanging out and messing around so trust me, I'm able to vent if I need it. I really am okay."

Kyle seemed to observe Kenny, as if looking for a sign that he was lying, but there was none. Kenny really was fine, Kyle had to know that, even if things at home were messy. It had always been messy for the McCormick's. If Kenny couldn't deal with it by now, he doubted very much that he'd even be here right now, talking calmly to his friend instead of hiding in an alley with a gun to his head.

"Craig, huh?" Kyle seemed to relax a little and gave a short laugh. "Haven't heard from him in months. Clyde gets calls to hang out every now and then, but the most I hear is a 'Oh yeah, Kyle, Craig says hi and stop being a prude'." Kyle said.

Kenny couldn't resist; he laughed.

"A prude. I would have thought he'd use harsher language, but you're almost too cute to insult, so I guess I see why he went easy on you." Kenny said, pushing himself away from the railing and moving to go back inside. Sure enough, Kyle followed after him, closing the sliding door again.

"I'm not cute." Kyle mumbled, seemingly displeased with the compliment...or maybe joke...who knew, that Kenny had given him.

"Are too." Kenny teased, turning around and smiling at Kyle. "And sweet. Definitely sweet too."

Kyle raised an eyebrow and returned with, "Is this flirting? Because no one calls me sweet."

Kenny just kept smiling and reached forward to pull Kyle to him, wrapping him into a hug. He really hated it when his friends worried about him, it was unnecessary. Kyle was the worst for it, he was always sensitive to what was going on with the people he cared about and Kenny knew he was the one Kyle worried about the most. Once in the past he'd yelled at Kyle to stop caring so much about what went on with him and the red head had full out punched him. He knew Kyle would never believe a single sentence that came out of his mouth that started with "I'm" and ended with "fine" so he tried his best to hide any distress and show Kyle that he was fine with actions.

"Kenny?" Kyle asked, hugging Kenny back, albeit with a lot more confusion.

Tons of things Kenny could say to Kyle flooded his head. "Thank you" and "You don't have to worry so much" were among them. But none of those would work. Actions spoke louder than words and humor spoke to their particular group louder than anything else. It was how they dealt.

So when Kenny pulled away, he snuck a kiss to Kyle's cheek and turned to humor.

"Stan won't get mad at that will he? Does he have cameras over this place to make sure I don't molest you?"

"Good lord." Kyle rolled his eyes and shoved Kenny back without much force, a smile forming across his lips.

"You smell nice. Can I borrow your shampoo sometime?" Kenny continued, even as Kyle walked out of his bedroom and headed to the living room again.

"You can borrow anything you want, Ken, but it's nothing special. I buy the cheap stuff so we can afford shit like cable and internet." Kyle replied, and as Kenny followed him, the blonde could see Kyle was making the fold out bed up and lifting it up so he could put it back to the couch.

Kenny leaned forward to help, folding over the bottom end and slipping it into the groove under where the couch cushions usually sat. He caught his phone as it nearly slipped off the arm of the couch as they moved it and noticed his message light blinking. Lighting the screen up, Kenny saw the text.

_Did you know that today's a no school day? Park near work is free. Meet up?_

Aww, Craig was asking him out. Well, sort of.

Kenny grinned and sent back, _On my way_.

"Text?" Kyle asked, sitting down heavily on the couch, now complete with cushions, and flicking through channels on the television again.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go out for a bit. You gonna be home to let me in when I get back?" Kenny asked, sticking his phone in his pocket and looking around his bag for the black jacket he'd packed in case it got cold.

"I'm home all day," Kyle waved his land lazily, as if shooing Kenny out the door. "Just call or text me when you're back and I'll buzz you in."

"Thanks." Kenny said, reaching forward to muss up Kyle's hair, laughing as the red head glared at him and lifted his hands to fix it. Kyle had gotten much more self conscious about his hair and instead of letting it curl and bunch up, he'd gotten it thinned out a bit and began using flat irons. It still never got perfectly straight, but the minor waves were much nicer than the full out tangled mess he'd had when he was a kid. Unfortunately for Kyle, minor waves were much easier for Kenny to mess up and the blonde boy took full advantage of that.

Stepping out into the sun, Kenny decided walking to the park might be a good idea. It was nice out, what the heck, right? It didn't take him long to get there, it was near his work and closer to Kyle's than his own house. He was actually surprised when he saw the park come into view so soon and had to look back to remember he'd covered only about half the distance he usually did from home.

Craig was on one of the swings, decked out in his usual blue shirt and some dark jeans that could have been black with various rips in them. The funny thing Kenny had learned about Craig's ripped jeans, of which he had at least three pairs, was that they weren't purchased like that. Craig had ruined his first pair like that while playing a mean game of paintball with Clyde and Token Black. There was still a little yellow paint on them, as well as rips from where he'd fallen or gotten caught on something. Kenny only knew this one because Craig had been telling that spindly kid from work about it and Kenny couldn't help overhearing. Or more accurately, was so mind numbingly bored that he'd purposely hidden behind the counter and eavesdropped.

As Kenny approached, Craig either didn't notice him or didn't care to look up to acknowledge that he'd noticed him until Kenny reached the swing beside him and took a seat.

"Hey." Kenny started lamely, unsure of how best to initiate conversation when they weren't immediately fondling each other or teasing via texts.

"Hey." Craig responded with just as much disinterest as always.

Luckily before Kenny had to come up with a unique way to say 'nice weather we're having', Craig started in on something else.

"Your face doesn't look as terrible as it did before."

Kenny stared deadpanned at Craig for a full thirty seconds before he said, "Yeah, I heal quickly. Jerk."

"You coming back to work soon?" Craig asked, finally looking up to properly look at Kenny.

"I think so. I'm going to wait another day or so and then go back." Kenny shrugged.

"Good. Reggie's being a little shit, I'm bored as fuck there." Craig said, pushing the swing back and letting it fall forward, kicking off to push himself higher as he swung back again.

"Oh poor you." Kenny chuckled, watching Craig swing higher and higher. The whole set seemed to sway slightly in response and Kenny didn't risk joining Craig. The set was made for kids in middle school, not nearly full grown people in their twenties.

"I'm gonna go on the actual playset. The one made of strong wood that won't break if I touch it." Kenny said, standing up and moving to the obstacle course of things made for children to play with. Rope ladders, slides, a zipline-esque feature that wasn't half as boring because you actually had to hold onto it...though, as Kenny slid along the line, holding on to the handle, he supposed it was still pretty dull.

A thump made Kenny look up and he saw that Craig had jumped off the swing, heading towards him while the seat still swayed back and forth uncontrollably.

"Right daredevil, you are." Kenny teased with a smile, grabbing a hold of the rope and planting his feet on the tiny protrusions from the wall that allowed kids to push up to the platform above. Before he reached the top, however, Kenny felt a hand on his shirt and Craig tugged him down from the wall. Kenny nearly lost his balance and landed hard on the sawdust littering the playground floor. He'd barely righted himself before Craig had pushed him back against the wall with more force than Kenny thought should be necessary among friends, or whatever they were at the moment.

"Craig, what the fuck?" Kenny snapped, straightening up properly and glaring at the darker haired boy.

Craig didn't say a word, but his hands rose up to slip under the shoulders of Kenny's jacket and he pushed it back. The heavier fabric fell easily down Kenny's arms to the crooks of his elbows and Kenny held in a breath as Craig leaned in. Instead of his usual tactic of going right for the neck, which Kenny was sure even a blind man would eventually be able to see hickies on at this point, Craig pressed his lips to Kenny's shoulder. Even over the fabric of his shirt, Kenny could feel Craig's breath warm over the area he was kissing and he let out the breath he'd been holding slowly.

"Miss me?" Kenny murmured, but he regretted speaking because Craig pulled away to glare at him.

"You talk too much." Craig said and Kenny blinked stupidly for a second before opening his mouth to retort. Craig immediately silenced him with a hand over Kenny's mouth and a raised eyebrow. Kenny frowned, staring Craig down until the darker haired boy sighed and pushed Kenny closer to the rope wall with one hand while expertly twisting the rope around his free hand and wrist. He pulled himself up, careful not to hit Kenny, and climbed up onto the platform. Footsteps on the wooden course indicated that Craig was walking away.

Well, that wasn't fair.

Kenny cursed under his breath, quiet enough for Craig not to hear and dropped his jacket onto the sawdust. He'd have a hell of a time picking that stuff out of his sleeves later, but right now he wanted a word with Mister Tucker.

As he reached the platform and rolled his body onto it, Kenny saw Craig waiting for him across a few thin lines of rope that served as a very shitty ladder. There were four ropes in total, side by side along the length of the open space between platforms and Kenny guessed there had to be more than one so the kids wouldn't fail miserably at trying to balance across. They had even installed rails on either side for cheaters who held on to guide their way across.

Cheaters like Kenny. Kenny gripped the rail with one hand, spreading his weight across the ropes and trying to take long strides so he'd be finished with this damn thing already. Successfully reaching the other platform, Kenny looked up to scold Craig for leaving him just cos he was talking, but the boy was already moving on. Kenny quelled the urge to shout at him and settled instead for running to catch up to him.

Kenny kept quiet as Craig slowed and glanced over at him. An exaggerated sigh followed and Kenny wordlessly flipped Craig off, which the darker haired boy returned almost immediately.

"You can talk, I didn't mean you had to be a fucking mute. You just talk a lot about useless things." Craig clarified, stopping on the playset next to the slide and leaning on the wooden planks that walled in the platforms so kids wouldn't fall off.

Kenny just made a face and sat down in the entry way of the slide.

"Everything anyone says to you is useless, right?" Kenny said, more just frustrated than actually angry.

"Not everything." Craig shrugged.

Kenny raised an eyebrow and said, "That narrows things down."

Craig ignored him and changed the subject, much to Kenny's annoyance.

"How does your face feel?"

"Fine. It's kind of ached itself out by now, it's just the color that's still a problem." Kenny answered regardless of how tired he was of answering people's questions about his face. Come to think of it, the only person who hadn't asked him about it was Clyde. "I'm staying with Clyde and Kyle for the time being."

Craig nodded slowly and for a minute, kept silent. He looked like he was thinking, but Kenny knew that was sort of just how Craig looked when he wasn't annoyed.

"Clyde told me about you coming over. Texted me last night." Craig eventually spoke up again.

"He did?" Kenny asked. Clyde didn't seem the type to gossip, so why would he have told Craig about something so trivial?

"Yeah. He was asking me about you and work and stuff. He visits me sometimes for lunch so he sees you in bakery." Craig explained.

Clyde had time to visit people on lunch breaks? Kenny racked his brain for a way that would work, but he supposed with how early Clyde worked, he could potentially take his breaks around the same time Craig did. There wasn't really a set schedule for breaks, Kenny had realized, so maybe Craig was just arranging his time table around Clyde. That thought bothered Kenny a bit. No one came to visit him at lunch, why didn't Craig and him just eat together?

"Come slide with me." Kenny said, swinging himself around to let his legs rest on the downslope of the plastic plaything.

"Gay." Craig said, but he lowered himself down beside Kenny anyway.

"Put your legs around me." Kenny instructed and though he got a very strange look from Craig, the boy moved in behind Kenny, situating himself with the blonde between his legs. "Mm, this is kind of hot." Kenny teased, though instead of the taunt he had been expecting, Craig looped his arms around Kenny and said, "Kind of" right next to Kenny's ear.

Kenny felt Craig nibble at his ear and, caught off guard, his whole body shivered pleasantly in response. Using the opportunity given to him, Craig ran his hands along Kenny's stomach and thighs, keeping most of his weight on the platform so Kenny couldn't overbalance them and send them sliding. Kenny reached up to put a hand to Craig's head, keeping him in the general vicinity and letting him kiss and bite along his ear lobe and neck.

It was wildly inappropriate; doing this here on a children's playset, but that was probably half of the reason Kenny felt so good doing it. Though he secretly hoped no one would come around and catch them doing this, he sincerely didn't want to move as Craig's fingers pressed lightly to the space between his legs.

"Guess we're not sliding just yet." Kenny said with a laugh, though it came out just a little shaky as he tried to maneuver his weight back against Craig without hurting him or accidentally pushing them down the slide.

"Guess not." Craig replied, his voice low.

Within a matter of seconds, Kenny really didn't have to worry about accidentally going down the slide. Craig pulled Kenny back to lay against him and rolled them so Kenny was on his stomach on the platform. Craig's weight disappeared from Kenny's back and the blonde turned himself over to see what was going on. Craig couldn't seriously leave again once he'd initiated something, could he? Nope.

Craig wasn't leaving. He was straddling Kenny's legs, and as Kenny turned to lay on his back, Craig slipped his fingers under Kenny's shirt and lifted it. He pressed kisses to Kenny's stomach and hips, sticking his fingers purposely under the waist band of Kenny's jeans and underwear to tug them down just an inch. Craig looked up, flashing what might have actually been a form of smirk at Kenny before kissing the newly exposed parts of Kenny's hips.

Kenny knew they shouldn't be doing this. Really, he did. This was wrong in all sorts of ways on a playground and any minute now a parent or teenager could come strolling around the corner and see them. But he didn't stop Craig. Even when his pants were successfully unbuttoned and Craig had managed to once again surprise Kenny with that usually sarcastic mouth of his, Kenny couldn't stop him.

He moaned and shifted uncomfortably on the wooden platform, managing to last longer than he had the last time at least. A particular difference that Craig didn't hesitate to comment on, once he'd hastily used saw dust to clear away any evidence that may have made it onto the playset that obscenity had been going on here.

"Well, you're improving." Craig said with that almost smirk again.

"Shut up, you." Kenny scolded lightly, laughing through the fatigue that had settled over him. He looked down at himself with a grimace and reluctantly asked Craig, "Can you bring me my jacket?"

Craig noticed where Kenny was looking and actually gave a short sort of laugh.

"You honestly think I'm going to keep using our clothes to clean you up?" Craig asked, sticking his hand into his torn jean pockets and pulling out a little package of tissues. "Thought something like this might happen."

"You planned on blowing me at a park?" Kenny asked, taking the package gladly. "How sweet."

"Not really planned, dumbshit." Craig returned, but there was little malice in his voice. "Just kind of thought we might end up doing something."

"We're lucky this place is deserted today." Kenny voiced his earlier concerns and received another short chuckle from his companion.

"You think I would have chanced it if I hadn't known that?" Craig arched an eyebrow. "I circled this place like four times before texting you. No one was around."

The idea of Craig circling the playground made Kenny imagine him as a vulture, creeping around for dinner, which only made him laugh out loud. Craig looked confused.

"You don't wanna know, seriously." Kenny got out between his spontaneous laughing fit. "Just...thanks, I guess. For doing all of this."

"You have to ruin it, don't you?" Craig asked, to which Kenny frowned. "We made a deal, McCormick. You don't have to thank me for getting you off, that was kind of the whole point of the deal, remember?"

Kenny shrugged and reassembled his clothing once he was sure he'd gotten all or at least the majority of the mess off himself.

"Well, this is the second time we've met up where you haven't got off and that was part of the deal too." Kenny pointed out.

"Whatever." Craig didn't seem too preoccupied with the subject now that Kenny had turned it to him. "Next time, I guess."

"Next time." Kenny agreed, trying to think of creative ways to seduce Craig the next time they met up. "This should be all better soon, so I won't have to worry about hurting myself." Kenny gestured to his cheek and sat up, pressing his back against the slide entry way again.

"What kind of crazy sex acts do you think up, huh? Why would anything we'd do hurt your face?"

Kenny honestly couldn't answer that. Well, he could...but he really didn't want to.

"You don't want to know." Kenny responded with a coy wink, even though he knew half the dirty things he knew about he'd never use on Craig. The boy would probably up and break bones for even suggesting some of them.

"You heading back to Clyde's later?" Craig asked, all too glad to not ask any questions pertaining to what Kenny had probably learned from porn as a kid. It hadn't been a secret that he'd...well...blossomed earlier than others.

"Yeah. Kyle told me to text him and he'll buzz me in. I don't have a key." Kenny nodded.

"I'll walk with you there when you want to leave." Craig said in what could have almost been a kind tone of voice. Almost.

"Why?" Kenny asked, not buying the 'I'll walk you home' shit real gentlemen pulled.

Craig sent Kenny a look that Kenny had seen Kyle make a few times before. It was the "I can't believe you're an idiot" look.

"Clyde has one of my video games. I want it back." Craig eventually explained with a sigh that Kenny didn't really feel was necessary.

"Aha. Ulterior motives." Kenny reached forward to playfully smack Craig's arm. "Don't fuck with me, I know a bullshit excuse when I see one."

"Whatever, McCormick." Craig stuck up his middle finger in response and Kenny stuck out his tongue.

"And it's Kenny. I call you by your first name, don't be a bitch and use my family name." Kenny said, flipping up both of his middle fingers in return.

"I'll call you whatever I want." Craig snapped, and Kenny actually felt a little sting of annoyance.

"My family gave me a wicked fucking bruise on my face and it's not the first time I've had one from them. Call me 'McCormick' again and I'll punch you myself." Kenny knew his voice was coming out harsher then he'd intended it to and he recovered by adding, "Seriously, just Kenny is fine."

Craig seemed to analyze what Kenny was saying but eventually he relaxed and rolled his eyes.

"If you're gonna whine about it, fine. Kenny." It seemed to take visible effort for Craig to say Kenny's first name, despite how close he'd come to saying it the first time they'd hooked up in Kenny's car. Craig wasn't a first name guy with many people, but while this mess was going on, Kenny didn't want to hear his family name coming from someone who was supposed to be fun to hang out with.

It took a few more minutes for Kenny to feel up to strength again and he idly made conversation before suggesting the walk home. Walking with Craig, the walk took almost twice as long as it had when Kenny had made it alone. Seriously. Kenny knew that he walked fast, but Kyle kept up with him just fine. Why was everyone else so slow?

Kenny supposed it made sense for Craig; the boy was so indifferent that him being fast or enthusiastic about anything was practically as believable as South Park ever being considered a normal town. Which was utterly _un_believable.

Kenny called Kyle as they neared the front door and the phone didn't even pick up. Kenny was about to call again when the buzz of the doors caused him to instinctively pull open the doors instead. Apparently Kyle hadn't felt the need to talk on the phone. Kenny guessed he must have had caller ID and knew Kenny needed in.

"Do you want me to go and get the game or do you want to come in and hang out for a bit?" Kenny asked, turning to Craig as he held the door open.

"Just tell Clyde he needs to bring it to work for me tomorrow, okay?" Craig said, waving to Kenny and turning to head back up the parking lot.

"Wait, did you seriously just walk all the way here with me just to not get what you came for?" Kenny called after him, an incredulous laugh escaping with his words.

"No, I got what I came for. It's standing at the fucking door like a moron though, so maybe I made a terrible decision." Craig responded in...was that supposed to be a joke?

Kenny was struck mute for a moment in response to the actual teasing tone that had come from Craig. And then it hit him. Wait...

"See you later, sweetheart!" Kenny shouted loud enough for the bottom floor above the door to hear through their open windows.

He could see Craig flip him off but the reply came in the form of a text, just as Kenny was closing the door to head into the elevator.

_You're a fucking idiot. See you later._

_0000000_

**Author's Note:**

And here is the chapter for this week! The next chapters will be out on a weekly basis, so please check in next week for chapter 5 :)


	5. Chapter 5

"Ken, please stop messing with my things."

Kenny looked over to where his sister was sending him a weak glare and gave her a cheeky grin in return. He caught the little makeup bag he'd been tossing up in the air and placed it gently on the bedside table. Kenny swung his legs over the side of Karen's bed and watched his sister packing up a bag full of clothes and overnight things.

"Where is the camp site?" Kenny asked.

"It's just outside of town, some little place Patricia's dad helps run. They've got a playground and everything, but I'm not really sure that's where we'll be hanging out." Karen said, moving over to take the bag from the table and toss it into her bag on top of some pajamas.

"Too old for swing sets?" Kenny teased, unable to stop the image of Craig and him on the playset not too long ago from creeping into his head. You were never too old for playgrounds.

"I just don't really want to be messing around on a playground. I'd rather read or something, but that defeats the point of camping." Karen laughed softly and shrugged. "I dunno. It'll be nice to get out of the house though. Especially with what-" Karen seemed to freeze up for a second and discontinued her sentence in a manner Kenny didn't miss. "Just some fresh air for a change, right?"

Kenny smiled a little. Karen hadn't mentioned what had happened to Kenny's face at all, but time had passed and Kenny's face was almost healed. A dull ache still lingered under the skin, but the discoloration was going away. Today was actually the first day back to work for Kenny and he'd stopped by the house to help Karen pack for camping before his shift.

He hadn't voiced it out loud, but both of them knew Kenny was also here to make sure Karen couldn't run into their parents. Both were out of the house at the moment, but Kenny didn't trust them.

"Well, you know you can call me anytime." Kenny offered.

Karen smiled and said, "I don't know if there's a pay phone up there, but I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Ken."

There was a moment of silence while Karen zipped up her bag and studied it, as if a note would pop up next to it saying 'You forgot something!'. Eventually satisfied that she had everything, Karen relaxed and went to sit on the bed next to Kenny.

"You going back to work today?" Karen asked idly, swinging her feet out in front of her.

"Yeah. Going in to work after this. It's not a long shift." Kenny replied with a shrug. His Department Manager had given him an eleven to four shift just to get him back into the swing of things. Luckily, him calling in sick had gained some sympathy so he wasn't going to get in trouble for missing so many days.

The bruise had taken almost a week to heal, though luckily a week where he had stayed at Kyle's and ate proper meals every day. When Kyle had said that Clyde was a better cook, he hadn't been lying. Clyde was a real and proper chef and the stir fry they'd had last night was haunting Kenny's daydreams.

"I'm glad you're not staying here." Karen confessed quietly, smiling at the floor. "Kyle's a nice guy."

Kenny nearly laughed, but he kept his face neutral. Karen had always liked Kyle, calling him Kenny's Best Friend and inviting him to hang out. It wasn't a crush exactly, but that hadn't stopped Kenny from teasing her about it.

"He is." Kenny agreed, for lack of anything else to say. He looked around Karen's impossibly small room and sighed. He knew he had to get going if he was going to make it to work on time, but it didn't make leaving his sister any easier. He wanted to wait until her ride got here and see her off, but that was at least another hour and he'd be late for sure.

Karen seemed to sense this because she stood abruptly and said, with exaggerated emphasis, "Well! You better get going and I've got to go get something to snack on before Patricia gets here."

Kenny pouted very obviously but stood all the same, letting his sister gently lead him out of her room. There was no door on Karen's hinges, something their parents had taken away from them for a reason neither of them really knew. Kenny had assumed the door had disappeared into the shed they had once used to grow illegal drugs, but the shed had long since been out of use thanks to regular visits from South Park authorities.

"Be safe camping." Kenny called as he hopped down the steps and onto the sidewalk.

"Have fun at work." Karen replied, waving enthusiastically before ducking back inside the house.

Kenny kept the smile on his face until he was sure Karen was out of sight and then sighed. He didn't really want to go back to work. He'd gotten used to just lounging around the house, texting Craig or Kyle when they were at work. The thought of seeing Craig at work again today was doing strange things to Kenny's stomach and he was almost very nearly excited to see him face to face again.

They hadn't met up much since the playground, fooling around a bit and then going their separate ways, but they were never long visits. Kenny knew that was their deal though; getting off and no relationship, but Craig could at least just hang out with him once or twice, right?

Kenny shoved his hands into his pockets and took the turn that would lead him to work, hoping it wasn't going to be a busy day.

0000000

It wasn't a busy day.

Kenny had been on shift a total of two hours already and only two customers had come to his counter. The smell of baking bread was driving him crazy and he had been tempted just to take a bite of something to quell the gurgling in his stomach.

Much to his dismay, Craig wasn't even in the front of the store for those two hours, presumably in the back taking orders from people who wanted packaged meat instead of generic deli stuff. It wasn't exactly his job, but the deli department manager wasn't on today so someone had to do it and Craig ranked higher than the kid currently at the till.

After eying him for a time, debating whether the spindly kid was worth making friends with, Kenny discovered that his name was Reggie. His girlfriend had come to the till and they'd chatted for a bit before she'd leaned over to give him a kiss and went on to do more shopping. Kenny wasn't sure how a string bean like Reggie got the brunette beauty that had been his girlfriend, but he finally settled on a potential bet she had lost.

A warm something touched Kenny's arm and he nearly shouted in surprise, jerking around to see what the hell had touched him.

"Wow. Not the reaction I thought I was going to get." Craig said, arching an eyebrow and withdrawing his hand.

"Craig! What the fuck, dude, you scared the hell out of me." Kenny placed a hand over his heart for emphasis.

"Come with me." Craig said, extending his hand once more for Kenny to take.

Kenny eyed the hand offered to him but slid his hand over Craig's all the same. Craig led Kenny out of his section and down towards the staff bathrooms. It was when Craig pushed open a stall door that Kenny knew what was going on and grinned wickedly.

"You are insatiable, you know that?" Kenny said with a laugh. "At work?"

Craig merely shrugged and locked the stall door with both of them inside and reached to loop his arms around Kenny's torso.

"You have a better place?"

Kenny shook his head and looked at Craig intently. The darker haired boy was just a little taller than he was, but that wasn't surprising. Craig had always been the tallest boy in their grade, but Kenny took pride in the fact that he knew he was only about half an inch shorter. Kyle was the same height as him too, though had he kept his hair all fluffed up and messy, he'd have at least two inches on both Craig and Kenny.

"All healed I see." Craig commented.

"It still hurts a little, but yeah, not as ugly as it was before." Kenny reached up between him and Craig to lightly poke at his cheek. The ache wasn't as bad today now that he was awake and focusing on other things. Like Craig.

Craig leaned in and pressed strangely gentle kisses to Kenny's jawline. Not that Kenny was complaining. He tilted his head to the side and let Craig work, eventually feeling the boy's hands creep lower and lift the hem of his shirt.

"Hold on." Kenny said, pushing Craig away for a second so he could pull the shirt over his head himself. He hung it loosely on the little pick that stuck out from the door and moved to close the distance between them again.

This time, he'd decided, he was going to take the lead again. He hadn't done much in the way of leading since the car and he knew it was because Craig had felt bad that Kenny had been injured. Or whatever Craig's version of 'felt bad' was. But now that he was healed, he didn't need to be babied. Plus, there were still some things Kenny felt were owed.

Kenny lifted Craig's shirt up to hook it up with his own and immediately replaced where the fabric had been with kisses. He bit gently at Craig's shoulders, causing the darker haired boy to shiver and rest his hands at Kenny's hips.

"You're still looking…..pretty good….for a deli worker." Kenny said in between pressing his lips to Craig's chest and stomach. He worked his way down, until he had to rest on his knees on the bathroom floor, much to his disgust.

"And you're definitely back to normal." Was Craig's only response other than a contented sigh.

"I have to pay you back, you know." Kenny said, licking a path along Craig's inner hip, stretching the hem of Craig's black pants back just a bit so he'd have access.

"Who says, ngh….you had to?" Craig looked down at Kenny almost curiously, but his eyes were clouding over a bit and his breathing just a little faster than it had been before.

"You took such good care of me," Kenny shrugged with a smirk. "I need to return the favor."

Kenny popped the button to Craig's pants loose and was suddenly struck with an idea. He'd seen enough movies to have picked up on a list of things he wanted to try and this was one of them. He leaned in to take the zipper in between his teeth and pulled it down, sinking his whole body lower as he did so.

A low groan was his reward and Kenny felt very pleased with himself. He reached up to pinch the pants around the thigh area and tugged gently to work them down. Normal briefs caught Kenny's eye this time and he almost laughed.

"No Red Racer today, huh?" He teased.

"Fuck you, I can wear whatever I want." Craig flipped Kenny off, but a slight pink hue was visible on his cheeks. Whether from the underwear comment or the fact that a certain bulge was visible under said underwear was up for debate.

Kenny pulled the briefs down and closed his fingers around Craig's member. He'd done this sort of thing before, but not for a while, so it took Kenny a second to figure out what rhythm seemed to work better. Craig didn't seem to notice his minor confusion, but that was to be expected. Kenny took pride in the fact that even when he wasn't certain, he was good at this type of shit.

Thinking back to how Craig had been such a good sport about taking the lead back at the park, Kenny licked his lips and tried returning the effort. It was uncomfortable, but the minute Kenny took Craig into his mouth, the dark haired boy gave an unintentional moan and one hand reached to loosely grasp Kenny's hair. Kenny had never really liked giving blowjobs, they were kind of a girl's thing in his opinion, but hearing the sounds that Craig was making was at least making this one worth it. He moved his tongue along the length and made sure to do whatever was ripping those sounds out of the stoic boy.

Craig kept one hand in Kenny's hair and clapped the other one over his mouth. He knew he was making too much noise and really really didn't want some curious manager to peek in and ask what they were doing. A second of panic flooded Craig as he realized Kenny could potentially see his face this time, but Kenny quickly obliterated that thought by taking Craig a bit deeper.

The stall walls were uncomfortable and cold against Craig's back, even as he arched forward and pretty much the only contact he had with the wall was his shoulders and rear. He fought the urge to push forward with his hips, knowing that doing that would only make things worse. He didn't know how Kenny reacted to surprises or choking for that matter, but either way, Craig didn't want to find out now.

Kenny's hands gripped Craig's hips, both gently stroking the skin there with his thumbs and keeping Craig in place. Craig's muffled moans and sighs were addicting and Kenny wished they could be lying down so he could glance up and see Craig's face during this too. He still hadn't had the chance to watch Craig get off, so adamant the boy was about hiding his face whenever it came time for Kenny to work his magic on him.

A door clicked open from somewhere and both boys stiffened, panic flooding them as they realized someone was entering the bathroom.

Craig mouthed the word 'Fuck', which Kenny only caught because as he'd pulled back from his work, Craig had tugged him to his feet.

The two had a brief and frantic silent argument, gesturing to the door and finally Craig sat down on the lid of the toilet and yanked Kenny towards him. Half of him wanted to say 'No way am I sitting on your lap like a chick!' but as the footsteps neared their stall, Kenny gave in.

He tried to arrange himself propped between the stall wall and Craig's leg, his feet up against the opposite wall to avoid being seen. Hopefully that was enough. Another stall door creaked open and there was a moment's pause before it closed again.

All seemed like it was going well until a familiar voice said, "Craig? You in here?"

If Kenny could have spoken, he would have told Craig that his expression that second was priceless. Both panic and his typical anger flashed over his face and he said nothing in return to the voice Kenny recognized as Craig's co-worker.

"You weren't in the back or up at the till with me, so I was just wondering if that was you in here."

Craig mouthed the words, 'Dammit, Reggie' before replying with audible words.

"Yeah, Reg. Not feeling so good right now."

"Aw, that sucks. I can't do the packaging though, so feel better 'cos we have to get this work done today." Reggie replied.

"I know." Craig rolled his eyes and Kenny grinned.

A sudden idea struck the blonde and, still grinning, he reached down to run a finger along Craig's dick. Craig glared at Kenny, as if daring him to continue. A dare Kenny had no problems with doing.

He took a loose grip on Craig and moved his hand slowly, watching the anger build up in Craig. As he idly increased his pace, Craig's anger faltered a bit and the curl of pleasure returned, much as he tried to fight it.

"I saw that kid in Bakery's back. Did he have a leave or something?" Reggie asked and Kenny almost laughed out loud. This spindly jerk had no idea and yet he was pulling all the right straws.

"Yeah," Craig managed to get out before silencing a moan with a rather pained look. "Medical leave."

"Wonder what was wrong with him." Reggie seemed to muse and the flush of a toilet drowned out anything else he might have been wondering. Craig took the opportunity and a few quiet gasps escaped him as Kenny continued to work his hand along Craig's length.

Kenny heard Reggie washing his hands and was pleased that he hadn't decided more bathroom conversation was what this day needed and simply called out a, "See you later" as he left the bathroom.

Craig's hand stilled Kenny's hand, his fingers tight around Kenny's wrist and they reassembled themselves right ways up, Kenny laughing quietly at the glare Craig was giving him.

"If he had noticed us because of you, I'd have broken something of yours." Craig warned, but Kenny kept laughing. "Maybe your damn fingers."

"Oh come on." Kenny said, his voice low out of paranoia despite the grin plastered to his face. "That was fucking hilarious."

Craig pushed Kenny and the blonde felt his back collide with the stall wall. Thanks to the grip Craig still had on him, Kenny managed to yank his partner to the wall with him and wrestled his hand free to wrap both arms around Craig's waist.

"Are you gonna yell at me or let me finish the job?" Kenny asked with a purr, leaning in to bite at Craig's neck.

"Fuck you." Was the only reply, but Craig didn't fight as Kenny led him back to their previous positions, kneeling down and playfully licking along the shaft before resuming his work.

It didn't take too much longer and eventually Kenny started hearing strained moans and Craig's grip on Kenny's hair tightened. Craig didn't try to warn Kenny before he came, but Kenny had kind of guessed and was glad that he had at least been paying attention because he managed to not choke on the release. Barely a second of contemplation passed before Kenny swallowed it, not wanting to let evidence stand on their clothes and forgetting they were in a bathroom.

Kenny lifted a hand to wipe at his lips, momentarily thinking that he could have just spat it into the toilet, but also proud of himself because Craig never swallowed. He could hold this above him. And he'd do just that.

Standing, Kenny smirked at Craig, who simply flipped him off and tried to catch his breath,

"Did I do good?" Kenny asked, smirk growing slightly wider as he leaned against Craig's chest and linked his arms around his waist.

"That's disgusting." Craig said, his voice a little raspy.

"Want a kiss?" Kenny teased, leaning in as if to press his lips to Craig's cheek, but the taller boy quickly stopped that by pushing Kenny back by the shoulders.

Kenny let Craig redress himself though he kind of wished he could have done it himself. He slid his shirt back over his head and unlocked the stall door, peeking out to see if anyone was around. Satisfied that there wasn't, he walked to the sinks to wash his hands and take a drink of water. Craig came out as Kenny was leaning over to drink straight from the tap and Kenny nearly stabbed himself in the eye with the tap as Craig grabbed him by the hips.

"Stop scaring me." Kenny scolded, though he really didn't care at this moment.

"Stop…being scared so easily." Craig finished lamely.

Kenny laughed and stood up, grabbing Craig's arms and forcing the darker haired boy to hold him round the waist from behind.

"Aw, we're cute." Kenny said, holding Craig's hands at his stomach with one hand and pointing to the bathroom mirror with the other.

"Ugh." Craig rolled his eyes, something Kenny could see in the mirror, but rested his chin on Kenny's shoulder all the same. "I have to get back to packaging."

"I know." Kenny nodded, watching the two of them in the mirror with a strange urge just to turn around and kiss Craig. It wasn't the first time he'd wanted to do this, but Craig's rule was still in place. Stubborn bastard, kissing didn't mean you were boyfriends, it was just something people do. Or at least that's the reasoning Kenny wanted to give.

"See you later." Craig said after a few minutes of comfortable silence, tightening his hold on Kenny in some form of a hug before letting go and moving to the door.

"See you." Kenny waved. He'd stay here a little longer and drink some more water before going out to his till. He really wished he could buy drinks on his shift because he could really use some soda to mask the taste of what he'd just done. Hilarious as it was to see Craig after a blowjob, it was still not one of Kenny's favorite things to do.

And neither was working. Kenny sighed and fixed up his hair a bit before reluctantly heading back out to the floor.

00000

Thank the gods Kyle had gotten a key made for Kenny because as it stood right now, no one was home to let him in after work. Kenny closed the door and called "Anyone home?" to no reply. It didn't take him long to spot a note Kyle had left for him in some kind of professional's writing, '_Working from 1 to 6 today. Covering shift for someone until night crew gets here, be back later_.'

Kyle's handwriting had always been better than most of their classmates, but analyzing it now, Kenny wondered exactly how it was still good after so many years of being out of school and not needing to write anything thanks to laptops and cell phones.

Sighing to himself, Kenny looked at the clock. It had taken him a bit longer to get home from work today because he'd made a point of meeting up with Craig before leaving to get rid of his urge to kiss the idiot, making damn sure to leave hickies on Craig's neck to show how frustrated he was. It was about five pm now and Kyle wasn't back for another hour.

An idea came to Kenny and he pulled open cupboards and the fridge door about four times each before he decided he was going to make dinner. He'd surprise Kyle with dinner when he got home and judging by what was in stock, he could easily make spaghetti.

He set about with the pots and boiling water for the noodles before turning the television on for some entertaiment. Nothing was really on the regular channels so Kenny settled for the music stations and was, right this moment, very glad that Clyde also worked late because he was dancing in the kitchen as he cooked. Kenny wasn't really a good dancer, not in his opnion anyway, but it was still fun rocking his hips and doing random hand dances while the water boiled and he cracked the dry noodles to cook them and stirred the pot of sauce that was heating up next to it.

It didn't take an hour to make, but when it became apparent that it was ready before Kyle was, Kenny kept it heated on the stove while he got changed out of work clothes and into pajama pants and a plain sleeveless shirt.

At around 6:15pm, Kenny heard the key turn in the lock and he managed to get up from the couch and into the kitchen by the time Kyle opened the door. He turned off the stove and midway through serving the pasta onto plates, Kyle came in beside him and raised an eyebrow.

"You cooked?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, I cooked. You think poor people can't cook?" Kenny teased, grinning at his friend.

Kyle just laughed and shrugged.

"People without food shouldn't know how to make it? I don't know. I'm going to get changed and then I'll be back to taste test this." Kyle said, disappearing down the hall and into his room while Kenny poured sauce on top of the pasta.

It looked pretty damn good to Kenny and he felt proud of himself yet again. He was doing that a fair bit today, but who would blame him? Not Kyle, Kenny had just cooked for him. And not Craig because….well…you know.

Kenny sat down on the couch, holding his plate of food in his lap and when Kyle emerged dressed in slightly faded jeans and a T-shirt with something clever about science on it that Kenny didn't understand, he joined in.

"Thanks for food, Ken." Kyle commented, taking a bite and nodding. "It's good, actually."

"Of course it is, I am a master chef." Kenny said without theatrics, though he grinned as Kyle gave him a look and laughed.

"Whatever you say, master chef." Kyle rolled his eyes but kept eating while Kenny channel surfed.

They settled on a movie, something Kenny had never seen called Taken, and finished their spaghetti. Kenny was quite impressed at his own meal and just a little disappointed he hadn't made more. He made a mental note to do just that another day. Make a whole ton of spaghetti. Just for him. And rent movies. Yes. That day would be kick ass.

Kyle went to bed around ten that night, leaving Kenny to finish up another movie on his own. This one wasn't quite as good, but it had the same actor from the first one in it and he was at least worth watching. Just before he was ready to fall asleep, Kenny smirked and pulled out his phone.

_To: Craig Tucker_

_Liam Neeson's pretty hot. Maybe I should send him a deal like ours, huh?_

Despite it being late, it didn't take Craig long to respond with, _You know he's probably married, right?_

_So you wouldn't be jealous if he did take me up on that offer?_

Kenny wasn't sure what he was expecting, trying these jokes on Craig, but on the off chance Craig surprised him, it was worth testing.

_If he did, which he wouldn't, I'd congratulate you on banging Liam fucking Neeson. Until then, you got me._

Kenny actually smiled a little and sent back, _Yes I do,_ before putting his phone away and getting ready for bed.


	6. Chapter 6

So early.

Kenny rubbed his eyes, trying his hardest to stay awake. He never usually worked this early, but his co-worker Felicia had quit yesterday and no one else had been available to take her shift. Clyde had given him a ride to work, since Kenny hadn't trusted himself sleepy behind the wheel.

_Damn six am mornings_, thought Kenny, as he glared weakly at the buns in the display cases. _How the fuck does Clyde do this every morning?_

Luckily for Kenny, the morning was fairly uneventful. Craig came in for a seven to three shift and Kenny spent most of his time texting. His department manager came to check on him a few times, inquiring mostly about how Kenny felt and if he needed a break just to let him know. Kenny faked a smile and nodded. He knew he should be appreciative, but it was almost creepy for the manager to be so nice to him. He got punched, not shot, he didn't need the concern.

It wasn't until after work that anything interesting happened. Taking off his vest and hanging it up as he usually did, Kenny watched Craig enter the staff room and catch his eye. Craig came up next to him and made a point of hanging his own vest right next to Kenny's, making the blonde grin.

"Aww, now we HAVE to see each other tomorrow to get our vests." Kenny cooed, wiggling a finger at Craig, who shrugged and turned away.

"You busy?" Craig asked as he walked towards the doorway.

"Not particularly. Why?" Kenny asked in return.

"Want to come over?"

Kenny just stared.

"I'm sorry?" Kenny asked, catching up with Craig to watch his face as he repeated, "Do you want to come over?"

"You never invite people over." Kenny pointed out but he walked with Craig all the same.

"No, I invite people over, they just don't say yes. You guys were always in a group and kind of assholes." Craig explained.

"I wasn't an asshole." Kenny protested with a pout.

"You told me you hated me more than once because I pointed out how stupid you were being; you were kind of an asshole." Craig arched an eyebrow.

Kenny shrugged as they made their way through the store and simply replied with, "Cartman's a heavy influence."

"I saw him a few days ago."

"Cartman?" Kenny looked at Craig in surprise. He hadn't heard much from Eric Cartman since the guy had moved out on his own and gotten a job doing telemarketing.

"Yeah. He's lost weight." Craig said, not really interested in the subject, but he knew Kenny would ask questions until he caved and told him so he figured it best just to get it out of the way. "He's dating Wendy now."

Kenny gave a rather sharp laugh that caused Craig to lean away from him with a grimace.

"Wendy Testaburger? Stan's old Wendy? Oh man, that's great!" Kenny laughed, knowing the fat ass had once had a crush on Wendy in elementary school. Apparently a crush that hadn't gone away.

"She moved in with him a few months ago. He insisted on showing me pictures cos she's all fat and stuff now." Craig continued.

"Fat?" Kenny started laughing again. "Since when?"

"She's pregnant or something." Craig shrugged.

Kenny had to stop walking just outside of the store doors to steady himself as he digested this information.

"Cartman's gonna be a dad?!" Kenny said, a little louder than necessary as he startled a couple walking out beside them.

"No big deal, dude, Wendy will probably be taking care of it, she doesn't work." Craig eyed Kenny like he might scream something else, but the blonde just laughed quietly and wiped a few tears from his eyes.

"Oh, life's going great for them, I'm sure he's super happy." Kenny said sarcastically with a wide grin.

"He seemed pretty fucking terrified, but he still showed me pictures of her so maybe he is happy?" Craig suggested. "Never thought the fat ass could really be capable of feeling happy emotions unless someone was dying or eating their parents, but I guess things change."

"Maybe he plans on grinding up Wendy after she has the baby and feeding her to it for strength." Kenny joked, though he had stopped laughing and the information was really sinking in. "Geez. Cartman and Wendy. Having a kid. Holy fuck."

"I know. Sickening, isn't it?" Craig said, taking a few steps forward and Kenny followed, remembering they were going to Craig's house.

It wasn't a long walk and the conversation about Cartman didn't stop until they reached the steps of Craig's house and Craig insisted they shut up because Cartman wasn't allowed in his house, so logically, neither was conversation based on Cartman.

Craig's house was much nicer than Kenny had anticipated. When he stepped into the foyer, he saw pictures hung neatly on the wall, mostly of family shots and a few with Craig's middle finger present as the photographer undoubtedly tried to get him to smile. Kenny could see where Craig's blue influence came from, spotting the navy blue couches and chairs and the blue coasters on the table.

It seemed to run in the family.

"Your parents out?" Kenny asked as Craig took his shoes off and started up the first step of the stairs.

"Everyone's out. Mary_*****_ and Thomas are out at some festival thing and Ruby's at a friend's house." Craig said.

Kenny didn't miss Craig calling his parents by their first names. Kenny had known they didn't have a good relationship, but not to that extent. Even he called his parents 'mom' and 'dad'.

"Oh, so you invited me over…to be home alone with you?" Kenny asked, lowering his voice and sidling up close to Craig on the stairs, who quickly stepped away and said, "Take your shoes off, Mc-…Kenny."

Kenny smiled at the use of his first name and obediently slipped out of his shoes and followed Craig up the stairs to what he assumed was Craig's room. It was equally as neat as the rest of the house, with dark blue carpeting and almost maroon walls. It hadn't changed a whole lot from when they'd been in school.

"I was thinking we could make some food in a minute. Late lunch." Craig suggested, lifting his work shirt over his head without any regard for Kenny being in the room with him. Kenny's eyes followed the fabric casually, wondering if Craig was doing this on purpose or not. Craig's pants joined his shirt on the floor and Kenny didn't care if it was on purpose or not.

He crept up behind Craig as the boy was looking for fresh clothes and wrapped his arms around his waist. Kenny pressed his lips to the back of Craig's shoulders, lazily kissing whatever part he could reach from here.

"What are you doing?" Craig asked, looking back at Kenny with a curious look.

"You're almost naked, what do you think I'm doing?" Kenny asked with a smile, resting his chin on Craig's shoulder.

"Get off me, dumbass, I'm trying to get dressed." Craig said, but he made no move to pull away.

Instead of complying immediately, Kenny made a point of running his fingers along Craig's sides and leaning in to bite at Craig's ear before letting go so Craig could get dressed.

"And yeah, lunch sounds good. What did you have in mind?" Kenny asked, moving to sit on Craig's bed.

Midway through stepping into a pair of jeans, Craig did an awkward sort of shrug.

"Okay, we'll wing it." Kenny replied without much interest. Any food was good to him. "I kind of want to get changed too."

Craig scowled and replied with, "You're not borrowing my clothes, you'll steal them. Go find something of my dad's if you want to change that bad."

Kenny made a face at Craig but stood all the same and headed to the hallway. There were three doors, all shut, but none of them marked so Kenny just checked the first one closest to him. Kenny was no expert, but judging by the posters of boy bands and the assortment of skirts on the ground, this was not Craig's parents room.

He would have left without a second thought, had an idea not struck him first. Stepping into what must have been Ruby Tucker's room, Kenny snatched a skirt off the floor and held it up. Looking it over, Kenny raised an eyebrow. Alright, make that a dress off the floor. What were kids wearing these days, seriously?

Ducking back out of the room and shutting the door behind him, Kenny moved on to search for Thomas Tucker's infamous hick wardrobe. The shirts were plaid and the jackets even worse, so Kenny wasn't going to touch those with a ten foot pole. He wrestled open a drawer that was nearly packed to bursting with jeans and sifted through them to find anything wearable. Luckily, there was a pair of dark black pants at the bottom that looked like they'd never been worn.

Kenny pulled them out and a tag welcomed him as he unfolded the pants. It seemed Mister Tucker didn't like formal clothing. Or anything that wasn't blue jeans at least.

Halfway through pulling on the pants, Kenny realized they weren't going to fit him. The waist was far too wide and Kenny wasn't looking through all the drawers for one damn belt. Not worth finding anything Thomas might have wanted to keep hidden. Kenny nearly shuddered at the thought. He'd found some messed up things in his parents rooms, but he was mostly trying to gather up their drugs to hide before the cops came around. And occasionally steal from his dad's alcohol stash. It wasn't really stealing if you were family, right?

Kenny scowled and put the pants back in the drawer. He really wished he'd had the magical foresight to bring a spare change of clothes. But he hadn't really counted on going over to someone's house, now had he?

He quickly stepped back into his own work pants and headed back to Craig's room with a sulky expression for effect.

"Nothing fits me. Just let me use your clothes." Kenny whined, leaning on the doorframe to Craig's room and watching the taller boy feed what must have been a new guinea pig. How long did those things last anyways? Stripe couldn't possibly be still alive, could he?

"No." Craig's response almost startled Kenny, who was already opening his mouth to ask about the guinea pig.

"I'm going to pick through your drawers the second you leave this room, you know this, why fight it?" Kenny said effortlessly, stepping into the room to get closer to the guinea cage. "Is this still Stripe?"

Craig shook his head.

"Guinea pigs only last about 5 years or so. This guy's fairly new…but his name is still Stripe." Craig explained, catching sight of a raised eyebrow from Kenny and shrugging. "Why change the name? It's not like it's any different from the old Stripe."

Kenny tilted his head and examined the guinea pig. It certainly looked the same as Stripe had, on the rare occasions Kenny had been able to see him.

"Why did you grab one of Ruby's dresses?" Craig asked, finally spotting the red and black dress hanging from Kenny's hand.

"I thought it'd be funny to put it up against whatever I chose from your dad's room, but he's fatter than I am, so it didn't work." Kenny answered, wrinkling his nose at Stripe, who had come up closer to the glass of the cage as if inspecting this strange newcomer staring at him.

"Just wear that, then." Craig said, and for a minute, Kenny didn't know if Craig was joking or not.

"What?" Kenny asked and Craig simply shrugged.

"If you want to change that bad."

"You really want to see me in a dress?" Kenny asked with a smirk, straightening up and facing Craig, who promptly turned away and gave a short humorless laugh.

"I'm not a pervert, dude, at least not that way. You want to change, I'm not giving you my clothes and that's final."

"Whatever." Kenny rolled his eyes and looked at the dress. It took all of three seconds for him to decide he honestly didn't care and lifted the dress to slip it over his head.

It was tight, of course, especially around his shoulders, but watching it hang off of him and swirl around his legs was enough to at least boost Kenny's mood.

"Do I look cute?" He asked with a laugh.

Craig just glared at him and raised a middle finger.

"Let's go make food." Craig said. He was beginning to regret inviting Kenny over.

00000

Dinner consisted of left over sushi and some instant noodles Craig had worked magic with, adding garlic powder and various other things Kenny had completely missed while trying his best to sit properly and get comfortable in the dress. _Damn Craig and his goddamn rules, would it kill him to lend me some pants_? Kenny thought irritably, but it was hard to stay mad when Craig would take breaks in between cooking the noodles and adding spices to come over and absently wind his arms around the blonde boy and especially hard to stay mad after tasting the delicious pasta that had been made.

They moved to the living room after dinner, falling over onto the couch with the intent to watch television. Well, about an hour in, the television was on, but neither of the boys was actually watching it.

Kenny was wrestling with the stubborn dark haired boy, trying to pull Craig close to him. In the small space of the couch, he kept getting Craig's knees to his legs and sides and it was beginning to hurt a little, but he was determined.

"Come here, damn you." Kenny said, though he was laughing and let go with one hand to shove Craig's knee out of his path before falling over onto Craig's side of the couch and pinning him to the cushions in a sort of hug.

Craig growled, a sound that went straight to Kenny's stomach and lower very much without his permission, and twisted in Kenny's grip so he was laying on his back with Kenny wedged between his side and the back of the couch.

Kenny hauled himself up over Craig and smiled at his companion before leaning down to press his lips to Craig's neck. In the time they'd come to spend together, Kenny had begun to get bored with the neck kisses, still pretty peeved that Craig wouldn't let him kiss him properly. Not that Kenny had really thought about it, pictured it, envisioned ways to sneak one without Craig stopping him, that wasn't it at all.

He let his frustrations out on the allowable space, moving so his knees were on either side of Craig's hips. He remembered the awkward similarity between this and their antics in the car and another rush of something went straight through his body, definitely heading south.

Craig's shirt was the first thing off, even though Kenny could feel Craig's hands at the hem of Ruby's dress. Kenny wondered vaguely if this creeped him out a little, fooling around with someone in his sibling's clothes, but he didn't have to wonder long because Craig ripped the dress upwards and surrounded Kenny's upper body in fabric until the blonde lifted from his work and the dress joined the shirt on the floor.

"Well this is no fair." Kenny said with a laugh, looking down at them both. "One article of clothing and I'm more naked than you."

Craig didn't respond with words, but after a moment's hesitation, the dark haired boy's hands reached for his own jeans and popped the button free. It wasn't necessarily this action that got to Kenny so much as that action coupled with the fact that Craig's eyes hadn't looked away from his the entire time. Fuck.

Kenny's hands joined Craig's in removing the jeans and as soon as they were clear of the couch, Kenny dove back in, pushing almost needy kisses to Craig's jaw, neck and anywhere he could reach without breaking Craig's rule. This was the first time since they had started this deal that anything to this level had occurred. Pants around the ankles wasn't quite the same as no pants at all. The freedom to move was definitely used as well, if Craig's shifting was anything to go by.

Kenny hadn't been paying much attention to what Craig's extremities were doing, but he felt an arm close around him and suddenly his world was spinning. He felt something soft against his back and realized that Craig had switched their positions. On this small couch, Kenny almost felt like congratulating him on such a feat. But congratulating him with words or actions wasn't a hard pick and Kenny lifted himself as best he could to meet Craig as he came back down.

It was like a fight but with kinder consequences, Kenny liked to think, both of them pressing kisses to one another's skin, Kenny locking his legs around Craig and having the taller boy push against him in a way that certainly hadn't happened in their previous meetings. Even without skin to skin contact, the feel of Craig's hips between his legs was a level of intimacy he hadn't had with many other people. Sex was one thing, but this was something else.

Craig's breath on Kenny's skin was warm and it spread down his arm as Craig kissed and bit along his shoulder. In the close confines the couch was demanding they keep, Kenny could feel Craig's whole body work to keep himself level with his attention to Kenny's torso while moving his hips. Kenny reached down to hold Craig's waist, the skin there warm to his touch.

Kenny wondered how many people had seen Craig like this, his mind working without his permission. The dark hair that was usually covered by the blue chullo hat hung in front of Craig's eyes and Kenny knew his own would be painting a sharp contrast to the dark couch cushions right now.

Kenny nearly choked on his own voice as he moaned in response to Craig's little bites and the slow push between his legs. They hadn't even gotten the underwear off and Kenny was already in heaven. There was just one problem. That feeling was back.

The one where he wanted to kiss Craig. Without really thinking, he'd been trying to do it for a while now. He'd achieved a few kisses to Craig's cheek and one even landed quite close, but Craig had turned his head and Kenny had barely caught the corner of those lips.

The frustration was beginning to get to him and Kenny felt the almost painful tension all the way through his body. The strange thing was it was also in his chest. Like it hurt his heart to continue working through the tension. What the fuck was going on?

"Stop!" Kenny managed to get out, pushing Craig back by the shoulders. "Stop it, stop."

"What?" Craig asked, frowning at the boy beneath him but obeying the command all the same.

"I don't….I can't." Kenny shook his head furiously, trying to clear whatever mess had been going on up there. His chest still hurt and he wondered briefly if he'd have a heart attack here on Craig's couch. "Sorry."

Craig watched Kenny cautiously and moved out of Kenny's leg lock and onto the floor next to the couch. He sat on his knees and looked at Kenny seriously.

"You don't want to?" He asked.

Kenny shook his head again, avoiding Craig's eyes in favor of looking up at the ceiling. What an interesting ceiling. It had the same odd spots like his at home, maybe there'd be a hidden pic-….alright, that wasn't working. The ache in his chest was passing though and Kenny sighed, raising a hand to his face.

"I'm sorry. I want to, I just can't. Something's wrong." Kenny confessed.

"What's wrong?" Craig asked another question.

_You won't let me fucking kiss you._ "I don't know." Kenny answered, unsure if he was lying or genuinely confused.

"You don't know." Craig repeated with that tone of disbelief Kenny had become so familiar with in school. "South Park's playboy doesn't want to have sex and doesn't know why."

"Fuck you." Kenny retorted but there was almost no malice to it and it only achieved a short scoffing laugh from Craig.

There was a pause before Kenny heard Craig sigh heavily and the blonde turned his head to look at his companion.

"What do you want to do, then?"

Kenny sat up on the couch and shrugged.

00000

"You don't have one of those, do you?"

"No, but my mom does."

"Oh my god!"

Kenny laughed at the image of Mary Tucker owning a Shakeweight, holding his stomach and ignoring the fact that Craig was flipping him off again.

After Kenny's minor heart problem, the two had sat in silence for almost a full twenty minutes before Craig had turned the television on for some background noise. Or whatever, Kenny didn't know why, but he'd guessed. As it got later, the actual shows stopped playing and shitty infomercials and shopping channels consumed everything. Glad for the distraction, Kenny had started making comments about the things sold on these shows…and it had become a _thing_.

Craig had resituated himself on the couch and Kenny had settled next to him, laying his legs across Craig's lap and pleased that the taller boy hadn't shoved him away after what he'd done earlier. Neither one had bothered getting changed again and Kenny felt oddly comfortable. Like, more comfortable than he'd felt with anyone since Kyle had allowed him to lean against him during their last movie night. And then some because Craig would let him occasionally press kisses against his shoulder or chest and play with his fingers when he was bored without worry of a jealous boyfriend coming in.

The commercial changed to Bowflex and Kenny snickered.

"They think they're all ripped and stuff but they fucking show you what they have to do to get like that and they just look like idiots." Kenny commented, watching some buff guy squeeze his legs shut against something designed for strengthening calf and thigh muscles.

"See how fast he lets go on the machine?" Craig asked, pointing at the screen just as the man relaxed and the weights separated his legs. "That's what he'll never see on a woman again."

Kenny laughed and added, "Because they'll see this commercial and realize he's a tool?"

"For starring in a shitty and rather fucking gay commercial, I dub thee unfuckable." Craig intoned with a flourish of his hand and the tiniest hint of a smile.

"Oh, oh my god, this one!" Kenny exclaimed, reaching for the remote and nearly kicking Craig in the process. He turned up the volume and Craig raised an eyebrow.

A commercial for Flexor_*****_ had come on and Kenny glanced between the screen and Craig to see the boy's reaction. Even Craig, in all his stoic glory, found himself fighting a smile at the ridiculousness of it all.

"Shakeweight wasn't enough?" He asked, holding in a laugh as Kenny seemed to be laughing enough for both of them.

Kenny gasped in a breath and said, "Just shake these balls around, there's nothing wrong with that!"

He did a complex looking hand motion and Craig noticed Kenny was mimicking the motions in the video. Craig smirked and watched until Kenny shook his arm out and spoke up again.

"My arm hurts now. Did I seriously just work out a little?"

"Oh you poor thing." Craig said sarcastically.

"I can't watch these anymore." Kenny mumbled, turning off the TV with a very prominent fake pout. "Making me work out and shit."

"What are we going to do, if not watch television?" Craig inquired, raising an eyebrow at his pouting companion.

Kenny shrugged.

"Talk?"

"About?"

"What's your favorite color?"

Craig just stared at Kenny for a moment before responding.

"My favorite color."

"Is it blue?" Kenny asked, wiggling a finger at Craig and grinning.

"No." Craig replied, much to Kenny's surprise. Noticing the expression, Craig shrugged. "Well, yeah, but it's not my only favorite color. I have more than one."

"Like?"

"Yellow. Green. I kind of like dark red too."

Kenny pointed to himself and suggested, "Orange?"

"Orange is alright. Though I know that's YOUR favorite color, so I don't have to ask that." Craig answered.

"It is." Kenny nodded. "Okay, so how about favorite food?"

"Do we really have to ask such moronic questions?" Craig asked, moving one arm around Kenny and shaking him.

Kenny laughed and jabbed Craig in the side, forcing the boy to stop.

"What kind of questions do you want to ask, then? Last I checked, we don't have much to talk about."

Craig paused for a second and at first, Kenny was worried Craig would just suggest turning in out of boredom, but eventually the boy spoke again.

"I like quesadillas. Like with red peppers and green peppers and chicken."

Kenny just grinned.

A few hours were wasted like this, asking basic questions that Kenny had pulled up from the internet on his phone, which was telling him that by the time they'd run out of questions it was roughly four o'clock in the morning.

"Hey, can I ask you something personal?" Craig's voice made Kenny look up from his phone.

Kenny didn't really want to say yes. His personal life was different than a lot of other people and his answers were either seen as something to pity or lies. But this was Craig. And Kenny was overtired.

"Sure."

"Why don't you move out?" Craig asked, his expression serious. It looked different from his usual mask of disinterest and Kenny wondered if this had been bugging him for a while.

"Of my parents house?" Kenny clarified, though he knew that's what Craig had meant. "I don't know. Don't really have the money to move out on my own with my car payments and all." Kenny paused before continuing. "And Karen's still living there."

"Your sister?"

"Yeah." Kenny shrugged. "Mom and dad scare her sometimes, so she needs someone there."

"Do they scare you?"

Craig's question caught Kenny a little off guard and he blinked stupidly at the boy for a few seconds before shrugging again.

"They're assholes, for sure, but they don't really scare me."

It was Craig's turn to fall silent and he glanced down at Kenny's legs, which were covering his own. His face hadn't changed, but Kenny knew the mood definitely had.

"Can you ask me a personal question?" Craig's voice was low and a little curious.

Kenny wasn't sure where this conversation was headed, but he tried to think of something personal he could ask Craig. He figured since Craig had asked him something about his family, he'd do the same.

"Why do you hate your family? Or, I mean, not hate, but….you guys don't seem to get along unless there's a crisis."

Silence. Kenny looked at Craig and the boy just kept staring at his legs. It took almost a full minute of waiting and wondering and worrying that he'd asked something that was secretly so personal that it had been offensive that that had been Kenny's first question, but eventually Craig opened his mouth to speak.

"We're a bunch of liars." Craig started and Kenny almost jumped in surprise at the noise breaking through his initial panic.

"Liars?" Kenny pressed.

"I don't hate them, it's just...we're the loving family that just has a few issues to everyone's faces and

then we get home we don't speak to one another."

Kenny wasn't sure what to think. It felt like incredibly important information that he was being trusted with, but Craig's face hadn't displayed any new emotions and his voice had remained stable and calm. He'd never really delved into personal things with Craig and wondered why now, of all times, Craig had requested the subject.

"Why don't you move out?" Kenny asked, repeating Craig's question to him from earlier.

Craig shook his head.

"It's like I own this house alone anyway, we all kind of stay out of each other's way. Moving out would just be the same but with me paying the bills and not my parents." Craig looked up at Kenny finally and said, with a hint of that old teasing tone to it, "You can understand liking the free ride, right?"

Kenny kept silent for a moment while the information and possible joke sank in and he gave a slow humorless laugh.

"Oh, cos I'm poor? Haha."

"Let's go to bed." Craig suggested suddenly, clapping his hands down on Kenny's legs. Thankfully, it didn't hurt, but Kenny jumped all the same.

"Right now?" Kenny asked, though he knew it was late.

"I'm tired. And what, are we going to sit and watch the shopping network until morning?" Craig arched an eyebrow.

"I don't know, I could do with a onesie and a diamond ring for much more than what they purchased them at." Kenny mused, but Craig shoved him back on the couch and he grinned widely at the reaction.

"You'd never get to use that ring if you bought a onesie." Craig teased, standing up and gathering his clothes that Kenny had almost entirely forgotten about from the floor. "Bring Ruby's dress back to her room."

"Yes, sir." Kenny intoned dully, rolling off the couch and snatching up the dress. "Where are we sleeping?"

"You can either sleep with me in my room or down here." Craig replied, already at the stairs.

"Can I sleep in your bed?!" Kenny exclaimed, following quickly to the bottom step and trying to remember which door was Ruby's.

"Did you bring a sleeping bag?" Craig's voice was lazy and Kenny wondered just how tired he really was.

"No?" Kenny answered.

"Then yes, you're sleeping in my bed."

"Huzzah!" Kenny celebrated, tossing Ruby's dress into a random room and hoping it was hers, ignoring the withering look from Craig.

There was no need to get changed, not that Kenny would have asked to as his underwear was what he slept in normally…that and he knew Craig wouldn't lend him anything. He slipped under the covers before Craig did, a little disappointed to see that the taller boy was rifling through a drawer for pajama pants.

"Don't trust me enough to sleep in your underwear?" Kenny teased.

"You were the one who stopped me earlier, why do you care?" Craig responded coolly and Kenny's mood fell a bit as he remembered.

"I…whatever, nevermind." Kenny said, falling back onto the pillows. Craig had a double bed, or so Kenny guessed because it was bigger than his own at home but not by too much, and had layered it with about three blankets and four pillows. Kenny relaxed into the trappings with ease. It was comfortable, though not quite as comfortable as Kyle's couch. And that was saying something.

"Your bed isn't really soft." Kenny remarked, voicing his distaste for it aloud.

"I need the stiffer mattress." Came the reply. "My back gets all fucked up otherwise."

Craig sat on the bed, swinging his feet under the covers before arranging himself next to Kenny. The blonde haired boy watched as Craig shifted and tucked the blankets under one shoulder, leaving the one closest to him open. Kenny snaked a hand out to lightly touch Craig's arm and Craig lifted it, as if thinking Kenny wanted him to move. Kenny took the opportunity to loop his arm around Craig's and hold it against himself tightly.

"What are you doing?" Craig asked.

"I cuddle sometimes when I sleep."

"Oh great."

"Fuck you, Craig, you'll like my cuddles."

Craig didn't respond but Kenny noticed he didn't pull away either. Good then. _Stay there_, Kenny thought and he shifted closer to Craig to get more comfortable.

"Night, Craig." Kenny mumbled, closing his eyes and vaguely trying to remember the last time he'd actually shared a bed with someone like this. It had been a while.

"Night."

00000

_*** - **_The first name of Craig's mother is unknown, but it doesn't seem they have a relationship close enough for Craig to use "mom". I named her Mary after her voice actress in the show for the purpose of portraying this lack of familial interest.

***** - Flexor = real product. Free Flexor for Men.

**Author's Note:**

This chapter was tough to write since I had a different idea for it, originally. I apologize if it sounds a bit off, but I trust you'll tell me if it does. New ideas are being added and scenes reworked, so the next one will be a little easier to get done.

The scene here where Kenny and Craig are watching infomercials and the like was taken from inspiration I'd gotten from a movie called Crazy, Stupid, Love.


	7. Chapter 7

Kenny didn't often dream. Well, he didn't count nightmares as dreams, though he'd had a lot of those. But this wasn't a nightmare. This was warm. Nice. Soft. Well, part of it was soft, there was something awfully flat against his side, but he was holding on to something soft. Reluctantly, he cracked open an eye and spotted someone's arm.

For a brief second, Kenny couldn't remember who he'd fallen asleep with. His heart jumped into his throat at the idea of it being Kyle and he was about to get into trouble, but upon further inspection, Kenny noticed dark hair. The night before came rushing back to him and Kenny smiled lazily. Right. Craig.

Steady breathing and the rise and fall of Craig's chest suggested he was still asleep and Kenny took the opportunity to push himself up onto one elbow and take a peek at his sleeping companion. Craig's look of indifference didn't go away when he slept, but the rest of his body didn't seem to operate under the same idea. The hand connected to the arm not occupied by Kenny was up by his face on the pillow and Craig's dark hair was messed up against the pillows he had used to prop himself up from the mattress. One leg had kicked its way out from under the blankets and was hanging half off the edge of the bed.

It was almost cute.

Kenny let go of Craig reluctantly and slid off the bed, moving down by Craig's feet so he didn't have to climb over and wake the boy up. He tiptoed into the hallway and looked in the last door on the upper floor to find what he was looking for. He closed the door to the bathroom and went over to the toilet.

The bathroom was a lot cleaner than the one at his own house, though that wasn't really surprising. The distinct lack of spiders and garbage cans that hadn't been changed, merely stepped on to make more room in them, was a definite improvement.

A thought struck Kenny as he was washing his hands and he made a face at himself in the mirror. He really should have texted Kyle last night. The red head probably didn't worry too much about where Kenny went, knowing now about Craig and their deal, but it was still common courtesy to text him to let him know.

Creeping back into Craig's room, Kenny found his phone resting on his work clothes and quickly opened up the text window belonging to Kyle's number. Sure enough, Kyle had left him a message sometime early this morning, and Kenny assumed he had had an early shift.

_Out until 4 today. Be safe xo._

Kenny smiled and typed out, _At Craig's, not sure until when. I'll text if I'm home before you. Oh, and xoxo._

He tossed his phone back onto the clothes and crawled back up the bed. His movements must have stirred Craig because by the time Kenny lay back down and threw the blankets back over himself, Craig had turned his head to blink at him.

"Morning." Kenny said cheerfully, grinning at Craig, who simply blinked some more before tugging the blankets up over his head.

Kenny couldn't resist. He thrust his hands under the covers to search for Craig and shook him around, receiving a long, unhappy groan in return.

"If this is how you act in the morning, let's never sleep over again." Craig complained miserably, curling himself into a ball under the covers and trying to swat Kenny's hands away.

"How are you this tired, it's like…" Kenny looked around for a clock and spotted a digital one on the dresser next to Stripe. "Eleven in the morning. That's almost lunch time."

"Good. You go make lunch. I'll sleep some more." Craig suggested, his voice muffled.

"I'm borrowing your clothes then." Kenny warned, moving to slip back out of bed.

Another groan was his answer.

"Why don't you like lending people clothes?" Kenny asked. He was already at the dresser and pulling open a drawer by the time Craig reluctantly tossed the blankets back so he could see what Kenny was grabbing.

"I don't like people touching my things."

"Didn't peg you for a germaphobe." Kenny said offhandedly.

"Not germaphobe, just…don't like it. People drinking from my glass, playing with my controllers or remotes, wearing my clothes. They're mine for a reason." Craig rubbed at his eyes and sat up, pointing to the drawers. "Since you're gonna fucking wear them anyway, try the bottom drawer."

"Why?"

"I've got some clothes I don't usually wear in there." Craig answered before falling back against the pillows. "Fuck. This is why I don't stay up late."

"Because blondes invade and steal your clothes?" Kenny asked, laughing softly as Craig immediately responded with, "Yes."

Kenny managed to find a pair of skinny jeans that looked like they'd never been worn or at least washed really really well and slipped them on, inspecting his legs as he did so.

"It's been ages since I wore actual skinny jeans. I usually just go straight leg." Kenny mused.

Craig peeked at the selection and nodded.

"I used to buy them all the time, I've got like six pairs. I only really wear the black ones though. I don't usually pay attention to the style, so long as they fit."

"You don't seem the type to really pay attention to fashion. Unless you count that pink monstrosity in elementary school." Kenny poked fun at Craig, remembering the only time fashion had really been a huge thing in South Park with the appearance of metrosexuality.

"Fuck you, I looked fantastic." Craig retorted, but he knew perfectly well that he didn't believe what he was saying.

"We should go shopping. Let the master Kenny dress you." Kenny suggested with a flourish, shaking out a shirt he'd selected with some logo on the front from a show he vaguely thought he recognized. "What is this again?"

Craig sighed, but glanced back over at his blonde companion and said, "A Transformers T-shirt?"

"Transformers! I knew it had robots." Kenny exclaimed, pulling the shirt over his head.

"Sure you did."

"Where you a fan of Transformers?"

"I used to be." Craig sat up again, knowing now that it didn't look like Kenny shut up unless he was sleeping or his mouth otherwise occupied. "I liked it because it was always on in between Red Racer seasons, so it worked out that I always had something to watch."

"Don't like it anymore though?" Kenny asked, moving to sit on the edge of the bed near Craig's legs.

"The cartoons look fucking stupid to me now and the movies stopped being cool with the newest one. There's only so many explosions you can watch before you start to think the Autobots are just stage hands doing Michael Bay's bidding." Craig shrugged, sliding out of bed lazily and heading to the now unoccupied dresser.

"Wear skinny jeans, like me!" Kenny prompted and though Craig scowled back at him, he opened the drawer to rifle through and select a pair of dark purple jeans that, when put on and done up, were indeed skinny.

"Kyle always wears shirts with something clever written on them. I've noticed he does that a lot. Do you have anything like that?" Kenny asked, bouncing idly on the bed that didn't give much room to spring. It really wasn't a soft bed.

Craig was silent for a bit, looking through drawers until he held up a black shirt with white writing on it.

"This is the only one with words I've got that isn't a band shirt." Craig replied.

Kenny narrowed his eyes and read the saying on the shirt. It fit. The shirt read, _'My parents said I could be anything when I grew up…so now I'm an asshole.'_

"Where did you get that shirt?"

"Mexico." Craig shrugged, putting the shirt back into the drawer and picking out a plain black one. "My parents went there after they won a free trip and Mary brought this back for me."

Kenny laughed.

"I'm not sure if that's insulting or not."

"Neither was I, but I liked the shirt, so it didn't matter." Craig closed up the drawers and leaned over to a small mirror Kenny had missed propped up between the wall and dresser to ruffle his hair and brush it flat with his fingers.

"Do you own a hair brush?" Kenny stood, following Craig to the mirror and locking his arms around Craig's waist as the latter fixed his hair.

"Yes, but I don't need it unless I have a shower."

Kenny reached up with one hand and stuck his fingers into the hair Craig was messing with and proceeded to undo all the work that had been done. He laughed as he saw Craig's displeased expression and withdrew his hand.

"Sorry. But your hair is really soft, I never would have guessed." Kenny mumbled, resting his chin on Craig's shoulder, ignoring the occasional smacks Craig would give him as his fingers slid through his dark hair and into Kenny's blonde tresses by accident.

"There's not a lot about me that you really got to know. It's not like we ever really hung out much before now." Craig mumbled lazily, fiddling with his fringe until he was happy with the way it sat and shooed Kenny away from him. "What's your plan for the day?"

"Depends. You want me in or out?" Kenny stuck out his thumbs, one towards the window and one towards the stairs leading to the kitchen.

Craig shrugged noncommittally and headed towards the stairs.

"I don't have much planned for the day, so I guess you could stay here for a bit."

Kenny beamed and followed, his grin faltering only for a second as Craig added, "And wash my clothes before you bring them back, okay?"

0000

After what was probably the laziest lunch he'd had in months, Kenny left Craig's house with the intent of going home. Not to stay, god no, but he was running out of clothes to wear. He hadn't been sure how long Kyle would let him stay and as he realized it was going on a full week since he'd left, he knew he'd need more supplies. Kyle had let him borrow the odd shirt here and there and still hadn't mentioned anything about all the food Kenny was eating, but Kenny still knew if he was going to continue living there for the time being, he'd need to stop being such a mooch.

It didn't look like anyone was home, but the distinct lack of cars in the family aside from his own was not much of a tell. As he thought about cars, he wished he'd thought to go home and take his. All this walking was hurting his feet. Kenny looked down at the worn in black shoes he had for work and scowled.

Unlocking the door was easy. And by easy, Kenny meant unnecessary. It seemed whoever had been here last had forgotten to lock up. He pocketed his set of keys, his fingers closing around the key to Kyle and Clyde's apartment with an almost desperate grip. When he'd received it, it had looked so nice and shiny by comparison to the grimy key for his own house which Kenny had once painted over in White Out. Now it was pulling little threads from the insides of his pockets and scraping the left over White Out from his house key.

Kenny wasted no time getting to his room, his whole body tense as he listened for any sign that his parents might be home. He'd managed to get a decent backpack from Karen's room and fill it with extra clothes, some bathroom utilities like his razor and toothpaste, and a pair of boots he'd spent far too much money on and had been far too proud of before he heard anything threatening.

"Where the hell have you been?"

It was like they could smell him, seriously.

Kenny flinched and looked out his doorway to see his mother climbing the stairs, still in her uniform from Olive Garden. She'd been hired and fired from there so many times it was a wonder the restaurant was still doing so well, but Kenny decided now was not a good time to make a joke about it. Instead he tried to be polite.

"Just get back from work, mom?"

"I was in the back with your father, now how about you answering my damn question."

*Carol McCormick was awfully coherent for how drunk she must have been. Kenny looked his mother over and had all of a second to remember back when he was a kid and she actually gave a shit about him. He wondered if his days as a superhero had influenced the niceties. How nice it would be to just appear as Mysterion again and scare the shit out of her just one more time…

"I've been at a friend's house. I'm working lots, and it's closer to the store than here." Kenny lied, at least about the last half, but he knew his mother wouldn't care. After his observations a second ago, it was clear his mother had gone to work drunk again and there was always a stash of wine in the back of such a well known restaurant. When Carol wasn't washing dishes, she was sneaking food and alcohol.

"You tell your little friend you can't be fucking around over at their house, you have things to do here." Carol snapped, leaning heavily on Kenny's doorframe and blinking slowly. Drunk indeed.

"I don't have 'little' friends anymore, mom, I'm twenty two." Kenny kept his voice calm but he knew exactly where this was headed and he felt his stomach flip over in disgusted apprehension.

"When I was twenty two, I was married with two kids already. Responsibilities come before your friends. You got to work just fine here, you can keep doing that."

Kenny gave a short laugh, unintentionally, but his mother heard it all the same and her voice rose to a shrill level as she shouted an accusatory, "What?"

Ugh. Kenny had made vows and prayers as a child that he'd never end up like his mother or father. The amount of alcohol and drug abuse they'd done to themselves had made them aggressive and nasty. Whatever love they'd had for their children had been left at the bottom of a bottle. And it was this depressing realization that caused Kenny to keep talking.

"You count being pregnant at sixteen responsible? And when was it exactly that you had Kevin?" Kenny turned to face his mother, fingers gripping the handle of the backpack so hard his knuckles were turning white. He knew this was the worst thing to do, engage in a confrontational argument with his family, but he was done. He wanted out and as soon as he got to Kyle's, he'd suggest his new plan to the brilliant red head who had been dubbed the Planner of the whole group since he was twelve years old.

"I raised you, you little shit. I took care of you and your brother and sister and this is what I get in return?" Carol slipped from the door frame just a little and both of her hands came up to brace herself against the walls. She stood unsteadily and tried to take a step into Kenny's room, but only managed to stumble back and forth before anchoring herself right in Kenny's way. "You leave home without so much as a note, your sister fucks off with her friends. We raise you and you leave us."

"You were too drunk to read a note, mom." Kenny said, standing his ground though he could feel his legs begin to shake as his mother built up steam in her anger. The most maddening part of it all was that Kenny knew it was only because she was drunk in the afternoon. The day always started with whiskey and ended with whatever foul substance they had growing in their backyard or chilling in their fridge. And again, Kenny ached with the desire to just leave and borrow Kyle's laptop to find any shit hole he could afford that didn't come included with his parents.

"You." Carol started, pointing a finger at Kenny and inching forwards as she kept her feet apart and her arms at her sides in some futile attempt to keep her balance. Kenny would have thought it funny if he didn't know what was about to come. "You, out of all of them, are the most disrespectful. Too drunk to read a note, fuck you, I can read.

Just because we're poor and your daddy is too STUPID," Carol leaned back to yell that, as if expecting Stuart McCormick to hear it from outside…which, with the thin walls in this shit shack, maybe he actually could. "-to find a job to support us. So I work my ass off to put food on our table and I get shit for it. Shit from your dad, shit from Kevin who's too GOOD to come and fucking visit us once in a while, and now shit from you."

"If you worked your ass off to stop drinking and maybe try taking care of yourself better, maybe you wouldn't get shit from anyone." Kenny said, reluctantly dropping his bag and reaching out to his mother. "Did you forget everything that Mysterion kid told you back then?"

Carol blinked uncertainly at her son, spotting his hand and swatting it away from her.

"I don't have to listen to something a fucking kid says to me." She spat out, but Kenny got the feeling she didn't even know who he was talking about. Typical.

"I'm not proud of everything I've done in life." Carol continued and for a brief second, Kenny's eyes widened and he was surprised. Was his mother actually admitting faults? But as soon as it came, the clarity had turned offensive. "For example, I could have married a rich fucker instead of your worthless father, and I certainly would have thought twice about going to that damn cult. Fucking monsters and hooded bitches. And I got you out of it."

Here it comes.

Kenny had heard this particular rant a few times, and it hurt every single time. He knew it wasn't easy being the one who had to deal with their son dying only to be reborn the next morning, but…

"If I hadn't dealt with that fucking club, I wouldn't have to deal with you being a fucking alien. I'd have gotten an abortion if I didn't think you'd come right the fuck back."

Kenny's chest ached. It wasn't the same as the pain he'd felt around Craig, this one was decidedly depressing and for a moment, Kenny thought he was going to lose his strength. He had told himself countless times that she didn't mean what she said, she was drunk. When she was sober, she was kind and would apologize. But those sober windows had been getting smaller and smaller until Kenny wasn't sure if Carol ever sobered up anymore.

And as Carol opened her mouth to say something else, something Kenny was sure would be devastating and unpleasant, Kenny picked up his bag and squeezed past his mother. He headed for the stairs and was down them before his mother could even take the first one. She wobbled on the steps, holding on to the railing and shouted, "Hey!" after him repeatedly until he couldn't hear her anymore.

He wasn't sure if he was more upset or angry, but the blood was pounding in his ears and his stride was a lot quicker than his usual one. He really wished he'd brought his car. Kenny slung the backpack over his shoulder and made a mental note to let Karen know he had one of her bags. Kenny balled his hands into fists, his nails digging into the palms of his hands and he pushed himself to move faster. He needed to get to Kyle's.

Kenny was unsure if it was what his mother had actually said or how hard he'd pushed his legs to move him faster, but by the time he reached the front door of the apartments, he was shaking. The key missed the lock a few times but eventually he clicked it to the right and stepped inside, his heart racing as he tried to calm himself down from what must have been more exercise than he'd done in years. When he finally entered the apartment, he threw his bag onto the couch and sat at one of the chairs Clyde kept up at the kitchen counter like a bar set up.

His thoughts swirled around in his head like someone had shaken a snow globe and he kept hearing his mothers disdain for having to deal with him creep up in the mess.

"Fuck." Kenny swore, dropping his head to the table and forcing himself not to think of anything. It wasn't until a small voice said, "Ken?" that he even realized the pounding sound had disappeared from his ears.

Kenny didn't move his head from the table, but he asked in return, "Kyle?" It must have been after four o'clock. He hadn't even realized lunch and his clothes trip had taken that long.

"You okay?" Kyle asked, coming up beside him and putting a hand on his back.

"No." Dammit. Kenny wanted to lie to Kyle and tell him everything was fine to avoid the boy worrying any more about him, but his mouth had ruined it for him.

The hand left his back and Kenny looked up out of sheer curiosity as he heard Kyle open up cupboards in the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his voice raspy from exerting himself in the walk home.

"Making you some hot chocolate." Kyle said, smiling at his friend over his shoulder. "It's not much, but you look like you need a drink."

"Crown Royal." Kenny muttered, but he knew Kyle didn't have whiskey in the house. He had tons of Smirnoff Ice coolers hidden away in the compartment of the fridge Kenny had been forbidden to touch, but Kenny didn't want a cooler. It wasn't strong enough to do what he wanted it to.

"I thought you went to Craig's. Was he an ass?" Kyle asked. The boy probably knew by now that he shouldn't pry into Kenny's problems, but if he did, he ignored that knowledge.

Kenny sighed and indulged his friend.

"No. I went home for new clothes and stuff and mom was back from work."

"Was SHE an ass?"

"Yes."

Kyle's simple insult at his mother was enough to tug at Kenny's lips, almost forming a smile before he remembered that he was miserable.

"I had a great night with Craig and a great morning, so I figured maybe I could sneak in and just get some of my shit before anyone noticed and she caught me. Went off on a huge rampage about how I'm not being responsible because I'm leaving them and how she thinks she raised me well and deserves better than this." Kenny confessed. Half of him never wanted to speak of this again and the other half wanted to shout out his problems and have Kyle hug him and tell him everything was alright even if it wasn't.

"The most responsible thing you've done so far is leave that house." Kyle said, boiling water in a little silver electric kettle thing his mother had given to him as a hand-me-down.

"That's what I thought." Kenny rolled his eyes.

Kyle leaned on the counter in front of Kenny, a small smile on his face as he said, "Don't let her get to you."

He held up a hand as Kenny opened his mouth to reply and continued, "I know that's an almost impossible feat, but try. She's drunk. She loves you, as any parent loves their kids, even if she's super shit at showing it."

"What's next, you'll be telling me she's just having a bad day and I should be waiting for some sappy family hug if I ever go back home?" Kenny asked sarcastically, unsure if Kyle knew exactly what he was talking about. His parents were not normal parents and if they loved anything, Kenny firmly believed it was the impressive collection of beer bottles and cans that had been taking up all the room of their basement. Which was really just a dug out hole under the house.

"I'm not telling you to wait for anything, I'm just trying to bandage the wounds she made." Kyle said, unfazed by Kenny's sarcasm. "She's apologized in the past and I know when we were kids, she loved you. I can't imagine that's changed in the last few years just because you left home."

"You clearly don't know my family. Alcohol has become their blood now. Not a single coherent thought that's had any kind intentions to it has passed through them since I was thirteen and they decided to get me a scooter for my birthday." Kenny said, wallowing in misery though he knew Kyle was only going to thwart his attempts by being nice.

Watching Kyle make the hot chocolate, Kenny wondered why exactly his friend wasn't more fazed about this. Usually it was all gung-ho about whose ass needed to be kicked or something along those lines. Granted, Stan was usually the one to suggest busting knee-caps in a parking lot, so maybe Kyle just played a little off of Stan's bravado. It had been a while since Kyle had comforted Kenny alone.

Kenny looped a finger into the handle as Kyle handed him his drink and let his friend wrap him in a one armed hug.

"Ken, nothing I say about your parents is going to make you feel better." Kyle said, his chin on Kenny's shoulder and his breath warm against Kenny's neck and ear. It would have been attractive, had Kyle not been talking about his family. "Any good I tell you, you're going to deny. Any bad I tell you will just make things worse."

"You're pretty shit at helping me forget I'm mad at my parents, you know." Kenny mumbled in return.

Kyle pulled away and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry. Just…look. Come sit with me outside for a bit, it's really nice out there. I wanted to suggest something to you anyway, it might cheer you up." Kyle said, making his way towards his room and the outdoor patio, keeping his eyes on Kenny to ensure he'd be following. Reluctantly, Kenny did.

He managed to slide into the one chair before Kyle did, but the red head didn't seem to care, looking off into the parking lot below them for a few seconds before clearing his throat.

"I wasn't sure you'd be into this idea, because of Karen and all, but maybe you need to hear it now." Kyle began and Kenny watched the red head fidget with his cup that was still too hot to drink from.

"Go on." Kenny prompted, taking a test sip of his own drink. It was scalding hot, but it didn't bother him so much right now.

"Clyde and I have been talking for a long time about, you know, the whole us as roommates thing. We kinda did it spontaneously because both of us wanted out of the house. But Clyde has been thinking of moving somewhere closer to his work. I can't move there, it's too expensive for me, but a one bedroom he can afford on his own. I…I don't know, I guess I was kind of hoping you'd like it here and I could offer maybe a place to live?"

Kenny just stared at Kyle for a second before clarifying.

"You're asking me to move in with you?"

Kyle shrugged.

"When I invited you over to stay initially, no, I wasn't planning on it, but Clyde's getting serious about moving in the next couple months, so I had to bring it up to you sooner or later." Kyle said, that sheepish look back on his face. "I really wanted to wait and bring it up to you when you were more…calm," He mouthed the word 'sorry' to Kenny after that before continuing. "-before this. You've only been here a week and-"

"Why not Stan?" Kenny interrupted, trying hard to keep the excitement down. He knew right away that this would cause more problems with his family, but the slightest chance he had of moving out of that house reminded him of what Craig had asked. "I can't afford too much and Karen's still at home."

"First off, the rent isn't that much. Since we split it, it's only about three hundred and sixty, so about half a paycheck. I know you still do car stuff but if you let me mooch rides off you every now and then I'll help with gas and insurance." Kyle rattled off information which led Kenny to believe he'd had this all planned out for some time. There was that Planner Kenny had wanted to speak with a while ago. "Second, you can talk to Karen, right? Maybe there's someone she can bunk with for a bit, or ways we can go visit her at home so she's still got you there, but not directly in the line of fire."

"And Stan?" Kenny asked, raising an eyebrow as he noticed Kyle blatantly left his significant other off the list.

Kyle shrugged and looked down at his feet.

"I don't know. We're almost a year in and…" Kyle paused and shifted uncomfortably. He let out a sort of frustrated huff and said, "You can't tell him, okay?"

Kenny raised a hand as if to swear he wouldn't tell Stan what Kyle had to say, not that he would tell him even if Kyle had insisted he do so. Their relationship was theirs alone and Kenny didn't meddle.

"It's scary." Kyle confessed. "I don't know why, but it is. I don't think we're ready to be roommates because if we start living together and this relationship goes on, it just gets really serious."

Kenny actually laughed at that, giving credit to Kyle for making him laugh when he was supposed to be upset.

"You're just realizing now that Stan is serious about you." Kenny asked incredulously.

"Fuck you, no. I know that part." Kyle flipped Kenny off and a smile tugged at Kenny's lips. "It's just that if we live together, he might want to share a room and be serious that way and we're far too young to just start some happy fucking home life together. Waking up being like 'hey hun, what's for breakfast?', I don't do that sitcom shit."

"You do with me."

"That's different, you're like…" Kyle fell silent for a second and laughed quietly. "Oh, wow, alright. Pertaining to the earlier conversation. I was going to say, you're already like family to me, so it's natural to act like that."

Kenny blinked stupidly at Kyle for a second and laughed again.

"Awww, Kyle!" Kenny said, rather loudly, and he stood up to pull Kyle into a hug. He wasn't sure why, but Kyle saying he was like family kind of made him want to cry. Happy tears, mind you, not sad ones.

"Except I proposition you on your fold out couch, so we're like cousins, let's say." Kenny teased, poking at Kyle's side.

"Gross, let's just pretend you don't do that shit and keep it undefined." Kyle said with a chuckle. "You're my best friend, dude, what did you expect after so many years?"

Kenny took this opportunity to revert the conversation back to stop himself from getting all sappy at Kyle's words.

"Speaking of best friends, let's go back to Stan." Kenny said, snickering as he heard Kyle groan. "So why are you scared to share a room with him, haven't you guys done that before?"

Kyle rolled his eyes as Kenny pulled away to fall back into his chair, trying to keep the hot chocolate steady.

"Of course we have, it's just…you know, we usually just fall asleep up in one or the other's rooms, we don't just hang up in there."

Kenny gasped, putting on an overdramatic show before he leaned forward and curiously asked, "You guys haven't done it yet, have you?"

Kyle's face was priceless. Kenny thought for a full second and a half that he was actually going to drop his hot chocolate mug, but the red head was steady despite the sudden rush of color to his face.

"That's none of your business, Kenny." Kyle said, trying to be threatening, but from his reaction alone, Kenny could tell Kyle was still inexperienced. Though he was only too happy to pry into Kyle's lack of sex life and how Stan was taking it, Kenny kept his questions to himself. There were more important things to discuss; things that might just cheer Kenny up enough that he'd get some sleep tonight.

"Fine fine. So about moving out. Would I need to be ready for a certain time? Are you being kicked out if he leaves?" Kenny asked, focusing on something a little less personal.

Kyle seemed unable to find himself in the conversation for a second but he shook his head briefly and managed to get out, "I'm not sure. I'll talk to Clyde about it tomorrow, but would you be interested?"

Would Kenny be interested. Kenny would have given Kyle shit for not already knowing the answer if he wasn't certain his friend was one of those over thinkers who needed to have written and verbal permission to do something like this.

"Of course I am." Kenny said.

Of course he was.

000000

**Author's Note:**

_*****_**- **Carol is the fan given name for Mrs. McCormick.

Though I know throughout the series Carol shows she loves her son, I know personally what happens to alcoholics or drug addicts if they continue with it and that led to this portrayal of her in the story.

As an added note, I've become very busy with work and an upcoming **Crenny** story I will be posting weekly after **IHYLTU** is finished, so I will be trying _(trying, not promising)_ to get out **two** chapters for my next update. I've got a full work schedule and then a weekend in the States, so I'll try and stockpile a bunch of chapters to release whenever I get the chance.


	8. Chapter 8

**May 26th**

Kenny looked at the calendar. He stared intently at the date before casting a glance into the living room where Kyle and Clyde were talking, most likely about the room mate idea proposed last night. It was one of those rare days that Clyde didn't work, though he usually spent those out of the house too. Clyde was more sociable with his work friends than anyone else Kenny had ever known before and it was, in his opinion, weird.

Anyways, back to the calendar. Today was obviously Kyle's birthday, Kenny knew that. His phone had alerted him to the date after he'd scheduled in all his friends birthdays when he'd first gotten his Samsung, back when it had been new and something to brag about. And yet, despite officially being 22 years old for at least four waking hours now, Kyle had done nothing to acknowledge his special day.

Kenny never really went out to celebrate his own birthday, so few the occasions where he'd actually been able to afford a birthday, but he always celebrated his friends. They were the ones to think up some grand scheme and have a good time. He'd sort of seen Kyle's birthday as his own as well, considering they were only a few months apart and Kyle always let him blow out his candles since Kyle couldn't often eat the cakes due to his diabetes.

But was he not doing anything this year? Kenny decided to ask.

"Hey, you know it's your birthday, right?"

Both Kyle and Clyde looked up from the couch to see Kenny hovering over the calendar in the kitchen and Kyle nodded.

"Yeah."

That answer displeased Kenny. He gave Kyle a withering look and made a show of walking lazily over to them to lean in close to Kyle.

"You know, most people celebrate birthdays." Kenny said with a hushed voice, though Clyde could hear him and was grinning at his antics.

"I'm low on money right now, what with the potential moving thing, so I can't afford to celebrate like usual, Ken." Kyle pushed Kenny back and added, "We're talking about you, though, if you want to sit in."

"Naw, that's okay." Kenny shook his head. "I'm not a planner, I'll leave it up to you guys."

Clyde spoke up, standing up from the couch and fixing his button up shirt as he addressed Kenny.

"Actually, I'd like to talk a few things over with you before me and Kyle finalize everything, if you're alright with that?"

Kenny shrugged. Clyde looked so professional in his nice jeans and dark red button up that Kenny suddenly felt really out of place in his sweatpants and his old Terrence and Phillip T-shirt. He'd seen one of their live shows a few years back and even though it wasn't funny anymore, he'd still made a point to buy a T-shirt.

Clyde led Kenny into his room, and Kenny stepped in gingerly. The clothes had been mostly cleared up; Kenny guessed during the period of time in which Kyle had made rather good eggs and Kenny hadn't yet been aware of the birthday this morning.

Clyde closed the door and Kenny raised an eyebrow. The brunette simply put a finger to his lips and gestured for Kenny to follow him and sit on the haphazardly made up bed.

"I do actually want to talk to you about a few things, Kenny." Clyde began as Kenny took a seat. "First off about the move, but that's relatively easy. Kyle told you I'm planning on moving out?"

Kenny just nodded.

"There's an apartment building near my work and with how many hours I'm getting, I can afford it there. Means walking instead of having to drive up and waste all that gas just for work. But that doesn't concern you," Clyde gave a sort of laugh and cleared his throat. "Kyle's told me he invited you to move in and if you're interested, there's a few things we'll need to go over. First, you get this room."

Kenny cast his eyes around Clyde's room and made a mental note to brighten it up when he lived here.

"Second, I'll introduce you to the landlord and his wife, they kind of own the place together. They like to actually see everyone who lives here, just to make sure they don't take you for a stranger breaking in or something." Clyde waved his hand dismissively and rolled his eyes before continuing. "They'll want you to sign paperwork, et cetera, but it's all easy stuff."

Kenny listened as Clyde rambled off a few more points about how much the place would cost him per month, what was included and not and added at the end, "If you need help moving, let me know. I've got an extra vehicle you can pack stuff into if it doesn't fit into your car."

"Thanks." Kenny replied genuinely, smiling at Clyde.

They'd never really been all that close in school, but since maturing and coming into his own in his workplace, Clyde had really become quite a cool guy.

"Now," Clyde reached out to put a hand on Kenny's arm. "about the matter of Kyle's birthday."

The smile on Kenny's face widened.

"There is something, isn't there?"

Clyde grinned in reply.

"Kyle didn't want to do anything, really, what with your family trouble and all. He kind of felt like we should be low key and not raise a big fuss over an age when there were more important things going on, but we both know that birthdays need to be celebrated, right?" Clyde asked and Kenny immediately nodded in return.

"Stan and I have been collaborating over an idea and he'll be inviting others over for a birthday lunch sort of thing. I've invited Craig." Clyde gave Kenny a smile that suggested he knew far more about how this sentence would affect Kenny than the blonde felt comfortable with. "We've got a little thing planned so don't tell him. It's not really a surprise, but if he knows ahead of time, he'll try and hide or stop it."

Kenny chuckled. The idea of Kyle hiding away somewhere to avoid his birthday was funny.

"Got it all? Housing, birthday?" Clyde wanted to clarify and Kenny nodded. "Excellent. Let's go back out."

Kyle had turned on the television by the time they returned and was lounging lazily watching a Canadian show called Cash Cab. He mumbled the answers quietly to himself, only to hear the ding of success when the contestants on the show got the right answers...which happened to also be what he was muttering. Smart ass.

Kenny dropped himself onto the cushions next to Kyle and smiled brightly at his friend as Kyle glanced over at him before settling in to watch the show while Clyde disappeared into the bathroom.

0000000

The knocking on the door didn't come until around...Kenny glanced at his phone for the time...four o'clock. It was still light outside and quite nice actually for spring time, so Kenny guessed four still counted as 'lunch'.

Clyde opened the door and Stan was the first one through it, carrying something behind his back he immediately rested in the kitchen out of sight. Luckily for the black haired boy, Kyle didn't notice the guest until he'd finished hiding it.

"Hey!" Kyle said, awkwardly removing himself from his slouched position on the couch to move over to Stan and give him a hug. "What's up?"

Stan grinned and glanced at Clyde, who merely whistled and walked out the front door to see if anyone else was coming.

"We know you didn't want a big birthday thing, but come on, dude. Like we're not going to come over and have a birthday for you." Stan said in a very matter-of-fact way and Kyle frowned.

"You guys have nothing better to do than waste your time here telling me how old I am?" Kyle whined dramatically, but Stan looped his arms around Kyle's middle and said, "I have absolutely nothing better to do, babe."

Kenny looked away at that, but he was sure Stan had leaned forward to press a kiss to Kyle's lips because neither of them spoke for a second. He wasn't sure why, but he felt embarrassed being exposed to his friends kissing. Kyle and Stan were like the perfect couple and Kenny had never felt right just lurking around in their relationship.

The kiss ended, however, when Kyle caught sight of who else was entering the house and he outright laughed.

"Clyde, you asshole." He scolded the brunette, but didn't appear to truly be angry at all.

Kenny looked over to see Leopold Stotch, a friend from school who he'd guessed Clyde had kept in contact with, Eric Cartman but no Wendy Testaburger, and one Craig Tucker enter the apartment.

Kyle briefly narrowed his eyes at Cartman, but the rounded fellow simply gave a tired smile and said, "Happy Birthday, Jew."

Kyle shook his head but managed to reply amiably enough with a, "Thanks, fatass."

Apparently the two had been in contact recently.

Kenny watched them all socialize for a bit, all giving their Happy Birthday's and catching up on what had been happening in the last couple of days. Even Craig summoned up the social skills to actually give Kyle a one armed hug. Kenny listened to them talk for a bit, getting an enthusiastic wave from Leopold and a lazy nod of acknowledgement from Cartman before the bulky boy sat down next to him and blocked out whatever else Kenny could have heard from the others.

"How you been, Ken?" Cartman asked, looking more worn out than Kenny had ever seen him before.

"Not bad. Rooming here for a bit, working, the usual." Kenny shrugged. He debated not bringing up Wendy, since it was supposed to be conversation focused on the birthday, but his mouth betrayed him. "I hear you're expecting."

Cartman gave a heavy sigh and nodded.

"Yeah, Wendy's a few months in. We had to hurry up and find a place together with a spare room, but I got a raise at work and she's got paid maternity leave coming up soon, so that should help." To Kenny's surprise, Cartman actually smiled and he thought back to his conversation with Craig about whether or not Cartman's intentions were evil or not.

"You know, it's so fucking tiring taking care of a woman with weird ass cravings, but it's kind of fun too."

"How so?" Kenny asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, she'll crave McDonalds at three in the morning or ask if we're allowed to put bacon on a sundae because she wants breakfast and ice cream at the same time. It's weird as shit, but it's funny too, right?" Cartman seemed to be wanting Kenny to answer this, so the blonde just smiled and nodded.

He supposed it could be; a bacon sundae ordered by a moody pregnant woman would be an entertaining sight to see at least.

"How did Clyde get you here for Kyle's birthday if Wendy needs you, then?" Kenny asked, curious why the old school bully would be at the house of the one he bullied.

"Kahl and I have been talking over Facebook." Cartman shrugged and Kenny nearly cracked a smile at the fact that Cartman still never pronounced Kyle's name right. "And Wendy's at her mom's house. I figured since Clyde invited me over and I hadn't seen Kahl in a while, I'd actually speak to him face to face this time."

"You never talk to me over Facebook." Kenny pretended to pout but Cartman smacked his arm.

"You don't have a Facebook anymore, Ken."

That was sort of a lie. Kenny had a Facebook account, but he never used it. He probably had a million messages from the old Facebook games he'd used to play.

"Okay, guys, everyone gather round." Clyde gestured for everyone to assemble around the kitchen counters and Kenny reluctantly got up from the comfy couch to stand next to Cartman with the others.

"Now I know Kyle didn't want a big thing going on today which is why I only invited a few people. However, it doesn't mean we spared any expense on the party itself." Clyde seemed to have everything under control and Kenny admired his command. Seems Kyle wasn't the only Planner around the group.

Leopold disappeared into the hallway and came back with a huge basket that was almost too big for him to carry. The smaller boy shook slightly as he carted it inside, but Clyde helped him rest it on the floor and unpack it onto the counter in the middle. There were at least five different Tupperware containers, big ones, filled with food. Two had some kind of wraps in them, one had cupcakes that had been designed as a cake, and the other two housed various veggies and salad with little containers of dressing.

"I work at this little health food cafe so I brought over what I could." Leopold spoke up quietly, his expression almost frightened despite the smile he had on.

"Ugh, rabbit food." Cartman complained and Kenny elbowed him in the ribs sharply.

Kyle just grinned and wrapped Leopold in a hug and said, "Thanks. It's a nice change from ravioli and pop tarts."

Leopold seemed to gain a little nerve from that and his smile beamed a bit brighter and he helped open the containers.

"Don't touch the cupcakes yet or I'll get Cartman to beat you." Clyde warned, half joking, but Cartman just grinned happily and puffed out his chest.

"Respect ma authoritah." He said.

Kenny shook his head. So long ago, that had been Cartman's catchphrase and Kenny was cursing himself for still finding it funny. Kyle and Clyde brought out plates and though Kyle argued that it wasn't necessary, Clyde made him pick the first dish.

"It's your birthday, birthday boys go first."

Kyle tried to hurry, Kenny could tell, and after he'd finished with the first container, the red head ushered people in to grab their own meals.

Kenny hung back until the others had gotten their food before grabbing a plate for himself. He spotted Craig hovering back around the living room with his plate of food and wondered if it would be weird going to talk to him with most of the people in this room knowing what they had gotten up to in the past few weeks.

He didn't have to worry long, however, because Clyde got there first and the two old friends started talking. Kenny turned away and found himself face to face with Kyle, who laughed quietly at the startled expression on his friend's face.

"You knew about this, huh? Clyde told you." Kyle accused, but he didn't seem too mad so Kenny nodded. "That bitch."

Kenny laughed.

"Come on, we can't not celebrate your birthday!" Kenny exclaimed. "Especially after all you've been doing for me."

Kyle shuffled around as if he were embarrassed by Kenny's statement, but Kenny knew better. Kyle shuffled when he didn't know how to respond to something or was reluctant to say something.

"I still don't think I needed it, but whatever." Kyle smiled, his eyes flickering off somewhere behind Kenny and the red head leaned in. "By the way, go talk to him. He's been quiet, I think he's waiting for you."

"Clyde's talking to him." Kenny didn't even need to question who Kyle was talking about at that point and there was no point in denying he knew.

"Clyde, come over here a sec!" Kyle called over Kenny's shoulder and Kenny scowled as Kyle simply smiled sweetly at him and led Clyde back to the main group.

Kenny debated ignoring Kyle's advice, but hell, he could just get it over with, right?

"Hey."

Kenny squeaked and nearly dropped his plate as someone spoke to him. He turned to see Craig and glared at the black haired boy. He had just been about to go over there and this prick had to ruin it by making the first move...

"Hey." Kenny knew that had come out rather lame so he added, "Didn't think Clyde would get you up here."

Craig shrugged and picked at the food on his plate.

"I didn't have anything else to do."

"Not working today?" Kenny pried.

"Nope." Craig responded.

Well this was going nowhere.

"Anyone want to try and beat me at Call of Duty?" Clyde asked, interrupting the awkward moment and raising up his hand.

Craig wordlessly raised his own and Clyde danced over to high five him before setting about turning the Xbox on and handing Craig a controller.

Kenny couldn't even describe how awkward he felt. Should he...walk away? Stay and cheer for Craig? He was about to settle on the former when an hand gripped his arm and he was suddenly being pulled onto the couch next to Craig. Clyde had settled himself on the arm of the couch, perched precariously with one foot on the floor and one on the couch cushion. Kenny found himself trapped against Craig's side, both of the taller boy's arms around him to hold onto the controller.

He silently looked around at the others, as if afraid they'd make fun of them or something, but only Kyle seemed to care and the damn redhead was grinning. That jerk.

The two old friends played video games for what felt like forever, Kenny excusing himself only once to use the bathroom and, surprisingly, Craig let him cuddle right back up next to him when he returned. Eventually they were stopped by Leopold who wanted to do the cupcakes because he had to get back home soon. Leopold still lived with his parents, granted he now rented out the basement suite instead of just having his little room upstairs.

Kenny and the others gathered around the table as Kyle poked a candle into one of the cupcakes.

"Only one?" Kenny inquired.

"Only need one." Kyle shrugged, handing the cupcake to Kenny.

The others were divided amongst the remaining guests, except for Kyle, who had insisted he take over lighting Kenny's candle and letting him blow it out on behalf of the birthday boy.

"Hold on a sec, Kyle." Stan said, rummaging around in one of the cupboards and pulling out a small box with the logo of a local bakery on the cover. "I know you can't eat all this sugary stuff, so I asked Becca down at the bakery to find something you could eat."

It looked like a little mini cheesecake and according to the label as Kenny leaned in to see it, that's exactly what it was. Made with specialty ingredients, no doubt, to cater to Kyle's diabetic nature.

"I still get to light Kenny's candle!" Kyle exclaimed to the group, keeping his grip on the lighter as if someone would steal that privilege from him if he put it down, but he beamed happily and leaned in to press a kiss to Stan's cheek. "You're so sweet."

"But I'm a diabetic friendly sweet." Stan said with a grin and Kyle laughed.

Eventually, they got the candle lit and all of them raised their cupcakes, or in Kyle's case, the little box his cake rested inside of.

"Should we sing Happy Birthday?" Leopold suggested, though judging by the wicked grin he gave Kyle, he already knew the answer.

"Do that and I'll punch you right in the mouth, Butters." Kyle said, using the nickname they'd given Leopold years back when they'd been in school.

Cartman barked out a laugh at this and Kenny jumped, almost forgetting the fatass had been here at all. He'd been so unnaturally quiet, but upon further inspection it seemed he'd just stockpiled the rest of the food no one had eaten and had been working away at that while the others made small talk.

"Alright, just Happy Birthday Kyle, it seems." Leopold laughed and the group repeated "Happy Birthday, Kyle!" before digging into the sweets.

00000

It was around six pm that everyone started heading home. Everyone except Craig and Stan, that is.

Kenny wasn't sure what the allure was to Call of Duty, but every time Craig and Clyde started a new round, Kenny would get pulled close to the dark haired Tucker so he didn't really bother trying to figure it out. It was oddly comfortable to just relax against Craig's side and the boy had even let him work one arm around his waist to allow for a better position.

Every so often, Craig would ask him something, usually things like "When do you work next?" or "Having fun?" and Kenny would respond quietly so as not to interrupt what looked like rather intense concentration on Clyde's part of the couch.

Kyle and Stan had arranged themselves comfortably in an extra chair, Kyle sitting across Stan's legs, both with their arms around each other. It was almost sickeningly sweet, but for once Kenny smiled genuinely when Kyle would occasionally catch his eye because this time, he was cuddling someone too.

"I hear you're thinking of moving here." Craig said, making idle conversation again and Kenny looked away from the birthday boy to focus on the black shirt he was currently pressed up against.

"Yeah." Kenny confirmed.

"What happened to looking out for your sister?" Craig pressed and Kenny was surprised he'd remembered their conversation from a few nights ago.

"I'm gonna see if she can bunk with someone else and if not, I'll just stop in every now and then and say hi."

"Cool." Craig's fingers skimmed along the controller and Kenny tried to keep track of what was going on in game world, but he really didn't care much.

"What made you change your mind?" Craig's questions weren't something Kenny really wanted to answer right now, considering he was in a pretty damn good mood since Craig had allowed cuddling for today.

But the whole room knew that Craig would just keep asking until he got an answer so Kenny awkwardly shrugged around Craig and said, "My parents are assholes? I didn't really realize how badly I wanted out of there until I started bunking here and saw the difference."

"He went back for spare clothes and his mom bitched at him." Kyle simplified and Craig nodded.

Kenny half expected something else to be said, but it seemed that Craig was done talking because the two friends resumed the game in silence. After another hour, it seemed they were finally done and Craig stretched on the couch, forcing Kenny to sit up properly.

"Well, I'm gonna turn in." Clyde announced and Craig gave a short laugh.

"Guess that's code for 'get out'?"

"Not so much code as a polite dismissal." Clyde corrected with a grin.

"I better be getting back too." Stan chimed in, though he sounded considerably more down about it than Craig did.

"No, no, by all means, stay." Clyde planted his hands firmly on Stan's shoulders, keeping him in the chair with Kyle. "Birthday boy needs some birthday loving."

Kyle's face flushed with color and Stan reached up to swat at Clyde, who just laughed and moved to see Craig out the door.

"Kenny, can I talk to you for a second?" Craig asked, slipping on his shoes and gesturing for Kenny to come closer. Kenny remembered when that motion had had no effect on him, but now that beckoning finger was giving him butterflies.

Was it because they'd cuddled? Ugh, he was turning into a woman.

Either way, Kenny followed Craig out into the hallway and, after waving to Craig, Clyde disappeared back inside the apartment.

"Yeah?" Kenny asked, curious as to what Craig would have to say that he couldn't have said during that hour of random killings.

"I wanted to know, if you were up for it, whether you'd want to go out tomorrow." Craig asked.

The words coming from his mouth sounded like they should be romantic, but the tone in which they were said very quickly reminded Kenny that he was talking to Craig Tucker.

"Go out?" Kenny pressed, trying to get Craig to speak plainly.

"There's a sale going on in the big mall outside of town and you sound like you might need a bit of a break." Craig shrugged. "If you don't want to, it's no big deal."

"I sound like I need a break?" Kenny inquired, wondering if his previous comment about his family had really sounded that bad.

"Will you stop asking questions and just answer me, dumbass?" Craig arched an eyebrow at him in return. "I'll help pay for gas, since you're driving."

"You just assume I'll drive you out of town?" Kenny crossed his arms and pretended to be offended, but he could tell Craig knew he'd won.

"You'll drive me wherever I tell you." Craig said, but he was moving now. Kenny hadn't thought Craig was this bold, but apparently his indifference did indeed extend to public displays of affection. Though that should have been a hint when he'd been treated to a blowjob in the park...

With Craig's lips at his neck and Craig's hands at his hips, Kenny could barely remember what exactly Craig was trying to coax him into. After cuddling on the couch, Kenny hadn't expected this and as he stifled a surprised and contented groan, he nodded.

"I'll drive."

"Good. I'll be up around eleven, you can pick me up whenever." Craig said, abruptly ending his seductions now that he'd gotten the answer he'd wanted, but the tiniest of smiles was visible on his face.

Kenny grinned widely and shoved his companion back a few steps.

"You jerk. Using me for shit like rides." Kenny pretended to complain, but he leaned forward to press a kiss to Craig's jaw before shoving him towards the exit staircase. "Go home."

"See you tomorrow." Craig waved and Kenny quickly slipped back into the apartment before Clyde could come out to see if they were done yet.

00000

**Author's Note:**

Work has been crazy so I apologize for the out of sync updates. I've got my chapters all worked out and ready to be typed now though so hopefully I'll be able to put out some more to make up for my missing chapter.

**P.S:** I've never played Call of Duty before so I know nothing about it XD


	9. Chapter 9

"So tell me honestly. Does this make my ass look big?"

Kenny put on a very serious expression, modeling a pair of oversized pants that hung far too low and drooped around his hips and rear. Customers in the store looked at him disapprovingly and one associate looked like she wanted to say something to him about his poor choice in sizing, but he had only posed the question to one person and that person was Craig Tucker.

The blonde was pleased to see Craig clap a hand to his mouth to hide what must have been a smirk, hearing quiet laughter coming from the usually stoic individual.

"Well I'm thinking your ass is _just_ a bit smaller than those jeans." Craig teased, raising one eyebrow and moving forward to usher Kenny back towards the fitting rooms. "Stop making people think I'm with a mental patient, show me what you actually chose."

The duo had reached the mall a little later than they had planned, thanks in no small part to Craig missing his alarm and having to insist Kenny wait in the driveway while he rushed to get ready. Kenny had teased him through texts as he'd waited and had made small talk with Ruby when the youth had come home from school for lunch.

She was an odd one, though not nearly as expressionless as Craig. Kenny had mistaken her for a boy in drag when she'd first turned into the driveway, bringing up a very awkward memory of when he'd been over at Craig's house last, but when she'd removed her hat and let her hair down Kenny had recognized her. Craig had full out picked her up round the waist and carted her indoors before joining Kenny in the car. Ruby had been shouting as they'd pulled away and Craig had stuck his trademark middle finger out the window at her. What a happy family.

Kenny had to admit, though, it was better than his family.

They'd been at the mall for hours now and Craig had been right about the deals. Kenny had been abusing his wallet, buying new jeans and t-shirts and a new pair of shoes that were far too expensive, even with the deal. Regardless of how he felt about throwing precious money away, Kenny couldn't deny that it _was_ cheering him up. Who would have guessed Craig knew how to cheer someone up?

"Hey, what do you want to do for dinner, by the way? Food court's pretty packed." Kenny called out from the fitting room, changing into a pair of loose fitting, but definitely correct sized jeans and throwing a deep orange hoodie over his regular shirt.

"Food court's always packed. There were a bunch of burger joints on the way here, maybe just hit one of those up." Craig responded, but he sounded a bit further away. Kenny guessed he was looking at the racks nearby for clothes.

So far, Craig had only purchased two items, which consisted of a very nice leather jacket Kenny had pressured him into buying and a set of headphones for his iPod. He had claimed he didn't need anything else, but Kenny had the distinct feeling that he was having more fun just watching Kenny fall over himself to get to the cheap things.

"Sounds good. Any particular place you like?"

A huff, somewhere between a laugh and a scoffing release of air sounded from outside his door and Craig said, "Dude, they're all burgers to me. I don't give a fuck. Try this."

A jacket was held up over the top of the fitting room door and Kenny looked at it curiously.

"I can't pull this off." Kenny said, taking the jacket regardless. It was a soft sort of jacket with a hoodie attached inside. The color combinations were dark grey and light grey, shades Kenny never normally went with. "It's grey."

"Who the fuck cares if it's grey, try it."

"Oh, pressuring me now? Is this payback for that leather jacket I made you buy?" Kenny laughed, slipping the soft material of the hoodie off his arms.

"Yes." Was the only response from the other side of the door.

"For the record, that jacket made you look hella fine, you won't regret buying it." Kenny opened the door once he'd swapped the dark orange hoodie in favor of Craig's choice and stepped out to model the new ensemble.

Craig looked him over, the index finger of his right hand pressed against his lips as he did so. This was just one of the habits Kenny was learning Craig had. He didn't do it very often, but the finger to the lips was his thinking face. Earlier today, Kenny had discovered Craig bit his lower lip when he was listening carefully as well. Craig had fiddled with his car radio for nearly a full thirty minutes and one of the only reasons Kenny hadn't told him to pick a station and leave his car alone was because every time he'd look over, Craig would be abusing his bottom lip and Kenny kinda maybe sort of thought it was sexy.

"I like that it's not orange." Craig remarked and Kenny gave him a withering look. "No seriously, it looks fine, don't give me that."

"Now you're a fashion expert?" Kenny joked, looking at himself in the mirror. He had to admit, with the nearly black jeans and his white t-shirt, the jacket didn't look half bad. "I think grey looks weird with blonde hair."

"No," Craig shook his head, sidling up next to Kenny in the mirror and lowering his voice as if telling his companion a secret. "It only looks off because you've got some golden blonde shit going on up here."

Kenny stood still as Craig ran a hand through his hair and messed it up, letting it fall nearly in front of Kenny's eyes. He let out a long exhale, blowing his hair out of the way and reaching up to fix it as Craig continued to talk.

"It'd look cool if you were a few shades lighter."

"I'd probably look really washed out."

"Go out into the sunlight, Ken, it won't kill you."

Kenny smirked, noticing once again that Craig had begun calling him 'Ken' instead of Kenny. He'd been doing it all day, with no explanation for the sudden change. Usually, only Kyle or Eric used Ken as an affectionate friendly nickname, but Craig seemed determined to use it for his only name now. He'd thought about bringing it up, but it didn't bother him and he still preferred it to McCormick, so he really didn't want to draw too much attention to it.

After Kyle's birthday yesterday, Kenny had stayed awake much later than he probably should have, trying to work out the best way of dealing with Craig on their road trip. Cuddling on the couch had been new and Kenny wasn't quite sure he knew how to proceed from there. He had settled for casual closeness; it had seemed the best option because Craig hadn't been overly affectionate during their trip so far. He found himself wanting to hold hands or touch Craig more often today, but that wasn't really a surprise to Kenny.

It wasn't very hard to see that Kenny was attaching himself to Craig more so than he should be. The deal was simply Fuck Buddies, but they hadn't even done anything overly sexual in the last few days. It was becoming a lot more like friends and last time Kenny checked, Friends With Benefits never really worked out well. This could go one of two ways and the blonde knew exactly which way he was headed.

The fluttery feeling in his stomach was enough to go by.

Luckily the trip had kept him from overthinking this realization and as he wandered up to the till with his jeans and the jacket Craig had picked out, he tried to convince himself that this wasn't going to end up like some cheesy romantic comedy.

"Okay, so...any more stores you wanted to check out?" Kenny asked, smiling at the cashier as she handed him back his receipt. She kept glancing at Craig as well, but the dark haired boy wasn't paying attention to her at all.

"I think I'm good. My arms are getting tired." Craig said, holding up his two bags for show. Kenny chuckled.

"You must be weak." He teased and he got a jab in the ribs for his trouble. "Ow! Hey. Be nice, dude."

"Call me weak and then tell _me_ to be nice? Oh, I see how it is." Craig replied.

Kenny led the way out of the store and gave a dramatic sigh. He was glad that they'd still gotten here early because the hallways between stores were starting to fill up with afternoon shoppers. This left only a few things to do...

"Let's go find dinner!" Kenny said, charging off at a determined pace towards where he thought he remembered the parking lot being. He didn't check to see if Craig was following, but he figured the darker haired male wouldn't stay alone in the crowd of strangers.

Sure enough, reaching the parking lot and risking a glance around him, Kenny saw Craig silently following his lead and texting someone on his phone.

"Reggie texting you?" Kenny loomed over the phone, not really caring who it was but definitely wanting to bug Craig for fun. Ever since that incident in the bathroom, Kenny had jumped on any opportunity to bug Craig about his co worker.

"No, I don't want to talk to that ass clown on my days off." Craig snapped, but there wasn't any real malice behind it. Even if he wouldn't say so, Craig was having a good day just hanging out and it was a lot of effort to pretend to be contrary to that. "It's Ruby, just asking if there are any sales at the stores she shops at."

"Are there?"

"You wanna text her and tell her? Cos there's no way I'm going to go poke through that list of deals to find her girly stores." Craig handed Kenny his phone without hesitation, without even waiting for a confirmation from the blonde. They had grabbed a brochure earlier with a list of deals from each store and Kenny pulled it out of his pocket, trying to match up the stores Ruby had sent names of to the list.

It wasn't that hard to find and text back. Then again, Kenny had grown up catering to Karen, so he supposed he had more skill at this than Craig did. He'd actually agreed to go shopping with Karen more than once and had been issued in as the eventual prom planner when Karen became of age.

"So you and Ruby don't get along either, huh?" Kenny asked once they started walking again, heading towards parking lot C, the lot Craig had demanded they park in because it was the first letter of his name. Kenny had to admit, it was easy to remember that way.

"Ruby and I don't anything, really. It's not that we don't get along but we're not close either." Craig shrugged in a noncommittal manner. "Told you before, we're not a close family."

Kenny remembered their late night conversation from a few days ago and nodded as if he was agreeing with something. Ruby had seemed more active than the Tucker parents, but Kenny had really only seen her a handful of times and never for long, so he couldn't comment.

"I guess it's just kind of weird, cos I'm so close with Karen. I kind of think siblings should be close. Even Kyle and Ike are close, despite the fact that Ike drives Kyle up a wall every time they see each other."

"Well, not everyone fits that outline." Craig noted, looking back at Kenny as they reached the car.

"You're an outline all your own." Kenny said, reaching forward to poke Craig's cheek, dodging the hand that came up to swat him away and moving instead to unlock the car doors. He didn't think he was wrong though, not knowing anyone else quite like Craig. Something he was actually rather thankful for.

"Damn right." Craig agreed, tossing his bags into the back seat while Kenny went to open the trunk to put his clothes in.

A small strip of restaurants lined their way as Kenny pulled the car out of the mall parking lot and headed in the direction of the highway home. He turned into one burger place at random and heard no protest from Craig so he asked, "Drive through or sit down?"

"Can you eat and drive?" Was the reply.

"Drive through it is."

Craig chuckled softly, a sound Kenny was getting to hear more often lately and definitely beginning to love the sound of. It was happening more today than any other day Kenny had hung out with Craig so far and the blonde was beginning to think that part of Craig's attitude was because of what was in South Park. Maybe a road trip every now and then would be good for the both of them.

"You're learning. Good." Craig spoke softly, sliding down in his seat and resting an elbow against the car door. He absently played with his hair as they rolled up to the first voice box and glanced at the menu for all of about four seconds before adding, "Just get me a meal or something easy, I'll pay for the both of us."

"I'm not that poor, Craig, I can pay for my own meal." Kenny retorted calmly, but Craig retaliated with a punch to Kenny's arm and began rifling around for his wallet anyway. "Ow. Why must you solve all your problems with violence?" Kenny pretended to be hurt, dramatically playing up a sob and turning his face away from Craig, just as the man over the speaker greeted them with a confused sounding tone.

"He probably thinks I'm beating you, play it up a bit more, Drama Queen." Craig teased, shoving Kenny with less force this time and motioning for the blonde to order.

Kenny stuck his tongue out and grinned, but managed to place an order all the same and roll up to the first window to pay. The cashier looked at them awkwardly as Craig, seemingly without a care to how this would look to a stranger, unbuckled his seatbelt and draped himself over Kenny's lap in the driver's seat to flash his debit card. Kenny could barely keep himself from laughing, the look on the cashier's face just entirely too funny to him.

Craig's body heat was seeping through Kenny's jeans as the darker haired male typed out his pin, casual as could be and apparently unaware of the fact that he had put them in an awkward position. As soon as Craig had handed back the debit machine to the girl in the window and started to retreat back to his seat, Kenny took the opportunity to pinch Craig around the waist. The eldest Tucker offspring jumped in between the two seats and gave Kenny a scolding look, but managed to shift back to his seat without much more difficulty.

"It was too perfect, I had to." Kenny said with his grin firmly back in place and Craig responded with his trademark middle finger.

"I did kind of walk into that one." Craig admitted with a grimace.

"You could walk into another if you'd like." Kenny said, gesturing to his lap as they pulled up to the last window.

"Fuck you, you've already had your hand down my pants once in this car, can't you be a bit more imaginative?" Craig retaliated, falling silent when he realized the associate in the window had heard them in the process of handing Kenny the food.

Oh fuck.

It took everything in him not to burst out laughing at Craig's words and the girl at the window's reaction, but Kenny managed to thank the girl who had turned bright red and quickly drove out of the line up and trying very hard not to swerve into a parking space and just let Craig have it.

"That. Was. Priceless." He said, unable to stop a few chuckles from escaping him as he tried to concentrate on driving. Kenny dropped the bag of food in between their seats, letting Craig pick his stuff out if he wanted. The dark haired boy seemed to have been rendered speechless at his own blunder, but recovered in record time to slap a hand to his face and slouch even further in his seat.

"Well, that's one burger joint I can never go back to." Craig muttered, but he didn't seem too bothered by it. In fact, when Kenny glanced over at him, Craig seemed to be smiling, but it was hard to tell with his hand in the way.

"No way, we need to come back again!" Kenny said excitedly, still trying not to swerve off the road and let himself laugh until his sides hurt. "Soon, so they don't forget."

"Oh my god." Craig groaned.

Laughing softly, Kenny wiped a stray tear from his eye that had escaped with the effort of trying to keep himself from losing control. Sometimes...just sometimes, Craig's bluntness and lack of tact was just so perfect.

Kenny pushed on the radio to calm himself down with music, singing along absently to the songs played and maneuvering the car towards the highway. He wanted to keep making fun of Craig, but knew he'd only end up getting punched again in the long run and decided against it. Craig had begun to pull his set of fries out of the bag and stuck one between his lips, biting the end of it carefully to check if it was hot.

Apparently deeming it edible, Craig held up another one to Kenny's lips and said, "So we're right faggots now, better start sharing food and being disgusting together because I can't keep my fucking mouth shut."

"Aww, you're so sweet." Kenny cooed playfully, nearly choking as Craig's words made him laugh again and trying to eat the fry offered. He caught the slight roll of Craig's eyes at Kenny's reaction and just grinned in return. "And for the record, it wasn't that bad. It's not like we actually had sex in this car and you blurted _that_ out."

"Not like we've had sex at all." Craig corrected and Kenny hissed at the truth of it.

"Yeah, my bad." Kenny said, half genuinely knowing it had been because of him that they hadn't gone all the way yet and the other half continuing with the jokes. Craig didn't take it too seriously, so Kenny didn't worry about it too much. At least not today. He'd replayed the scene from before over and over in his mind at home, trying to find some way to explain it without having to admit he'd felt something not so casual for the darker haired boy.

"Not a big deal." Craig shrugged and for a long while he was quiet, eating his burger and fries.

Kenny listened to the radio, humming along and every so often, Craig would be sweet (or what Kenny was going to call sweet) and offer him a few fries from his meal. Kenny might have called it comfortable, but the songs weren't all that good and he really wished he had something to say instead. It wasn't until after the food was gone that Kenny broke the silence between them.

"So how about a game?" Kenny suggested, which earned him a serious look from Craig.

"If you say I Spy or any of those lame car games, I will combat roll out of this vehicle."

"Fuck, Craig, stay in the car." Though he was laughing, Kenny couldn't help but be a little worried about the unlocked car doors. "I just meant like asking questions or something. Today was nice. You were right; it was a nice break. Figured maybe we could cap it off with some stories or something."

"Stories. See you _say_ shit like that with a serious face, but I don't know if you actually realize how girly that sounds." Craig teased, narrowing his eyes and relaxing against the car door, his elbow up against the window.

"We're disgusting, remember? I'm allowed to sound girly."

Kenny didn't look over to see Craig, but he heard a sigh and knew he'd won. A thrill of pride ran through him when he heard evidence to his guess and Craig asked, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Hmmm." Kenny thought, trying to figure out a story he might want to tell or hear from Craig. There were plenty of ones he knew Craig _wouldn't _answer, so he started off simple. "What was your biggest injury? Or have you even been injured?"

"That's what you pick first? God, so morbid. Okay." Craig cleared his throat and took a moment to think. "When I was little, I was playing tag with a cousin of mine. I wasn't really focusing and ended up not seeing a picnic table in front of me. Gashed my chin open and had to be rushed to the hospital because it wouldn't stop bleeding."

Kenny's eyes widened and he chanced a small laugh, hoping it wouldn't offend Craig.

"Really? Wow."

"Okay, now you. When did you start loving interrogation games so much?" Craig gave Kenny a sly sort of smirk and waited for an answer.

Well, that one was kind of deserved. Kenny tilted his head and signaled into the next lane to pass a slower car before answering.

"I used to play them all the time with Kyle. It's how I found out about him liking both teams and it because sort of my way of coaxing information out of people." Kenny confessed. "It's working with you too."

"Haha." Craig said sarcastically.

"If you were easy to get information from, I wouldn't need games." Kenny said in a musical tone, glancing quickly over to Craig for effect.

"How ever would I keep things interesting if you just _knew_ stuff about me?" Craig looked at him with an exasperated expression and Kenny snickered.

"You are always interesting, Craig. Even when I think I've got you figured, you surprise me." Kenny admitted. Though it wasn't exactly true, since he could still predict some of what Craig did, there were those little gaps when Kenny was utterly unprepared for what Craig decided to give him.

Like yesterday...

"Okay, next question." Kenny said, taking his chances and asking, "What was with the cuddling yesterday?"

Craig blinked at him and shrugged, but Kenny barely caught the motion. He gave a short hum to press for more information and Craig sighed.

"Do I need a reason?" Craig leaned back against his seat lazily, reaching up to link his fingers behind his head. "Sometimes even I want to do that sappy shit."

"Really?" Kenny asked, genuinely surprised by this. He'd assumed he'd been the only one to feel that way. The weird heart problems, the butterflies in the stomach...sure, Craig wasn't admitting to those things, exactly, but...it was almost as good. "Figured you'd be against all that. The whole no kissing rule and all kind of indicated a lack of intimacy that way."

Craig scoffed and replied with, "The kissing has nothing to do with me liking or not liking romantic shit. I just think I should be saving something for the people I actually date and...well, sex is kind of already off the table."

"Who have you had sex with?" There was a familiar tightening in Kenny's stomach, but it wasn't jealousy. Seriously, it wasn't.

"You already had your question, it's my turn. Why are you so preoccupied with my intimacy issues?" Craig quickly rebounded and Kenny wanted to say he wasted no time answering, but this was tough.

He paused, knowing full well he couldn't just launch into an explanation of how his heart sped up when they were close or how he'd wanted to hold Craig's hand all day today. Not that he had...okay, whatever, he had. He knew enough about his own feelings to know shit was getting real with Craig and Kenny wasn't about to screw things up by actually voicing it to the stoic male.

"I just find it weird. I had my first kiss before I slept with my first partner, so it's never been a huge thing in my eyes." Kenny finally managed to respond and without missing a beat, returned his question from earlier. "Now who have you slept with?"

"It was a kid from my camp. Tom or something, I don't really remember. But I've had others. Like Bebe Stevens, from school."

Kenny blinked stupidly for a few seconds before remembering the blonde girl who'd been Wendy's friend in nearly every class. The two had been inseparable.

"I thought she was a lesbian." Kenny said.

"She classifies herself based on who she's dating at the moment, but she's actually pansexual." Craig didn't seem to care much about explaining Bebe, but he did anyway. "She wasn't that good."

"Ew." Kenny made a face. "Now I can't get Bebe's face out of my head."

Craig actually grinned at that and mumbled a rather insincere sounding, "Sorry."

Kenny sighed and tried not to let his heart start thudding against his chest from the news that someone else _had_ seen that face from the night Kenny had slept over. They'd even seen more. Those bitches.

"Ask me another." Kenny prompted, wanting to get to his next question so he could pry more into Craig's life. It was probably going to do more damage than good, but he didn't much care.

"Who was your first?"

"Her name was Jade. Transfer student. Didn't last long. She went back to New Zealand and conveniently forgot my e-mail." Kenny remembered most of the people he slept with, mostly because it hadn't actually been that many. He could count on one hand the amount of people he'd actually had sex with, even if the amount of people he'd done other shit with probably took two or three hands. Jade had been one of the pretty ones. Long dark hair and that accent...thinking back on it now, it had probably been the accent he'd fallen for.

"Have you ever kissed anyone before? I mean, like...I guess I should say, have you ever really dated before?" Kenny asked, watching Craig out of the corner of his eye.

"No. I almost did, I had a girlfriend for a bit, but we never kissed. She ended up cheating on me." Craig answered, now paying full attention to Kenny. It didn't take an idiot to see how this was affecting the blonde and it was kind of fascinating to watch the array of emotions flit across his face.

Before Kenny could ask another question, he realized they'd come up to the exit they needed and veered off, letting the car slow down as he reached the regular road that would take them home. It'd be about twenty minutes now before they got to town and they would have to part ways.

Kenny's chest tightened. Should he? Shouldn't he?

"Any more questions?" He pressed.

"Hey, Ken?" Craig ignored Kenny's words, but his tone sounded questioning all the same. "You're not over thinking this, are you? This thing we have."

"Over thinking how?" Kenny inquired.

Craig just sighed. He shifted in his seat and turned his eyes out to the road, leaving Kenny confused. What the hell had Craig meant? Now Kenny definitely couldn't ask what he wanted.

"Thanks for inviting me out." Kenny changed the topic, turning the radio down and rolling his window down as well, letting the cool air come in through the car and ruffling his hair. "I had fun."

"Just remind me not to talk when we go out next, kay?" Craig said, a hint of teasing to it and Kenny grinned.

"You got it." Kenny nodded.

For about half the remaining trip, they sat in comfortable silence, listening to the quiet thrums of the radio that was playing a Korean song Kenny knew from Youtube. It was oddly out of place on the English speaking station, but it was catchy all the same. He was beginning to fall into a lull, nearly half asleep at the wheel when something touched the back of his free hand. He'd let it rest on his leg and jumped at the feeling, very narrowly avoiding an accident when his quick reflexes caused the hand on the steering wheel to seize up.

Kenny looked down to see what had startled him and saw Craig's hand over his own. He glanced over with an incredulous expression, heart beating just a bit faster in his chest to see Craig looking down at their joined hands.

"What the heck, dude? Scared the shit out of me." Kenny breathed out uncertainly, trying to sound firm and failing.

"Sorry." Craig didn't sound too sorry. "You like this, don't you?"

"Huh?"

"Me being all affectionate and shit."

Kenny didn't reply and his silence caused Craig to look up at him. He seemed to find the answer he was looking for in Kenny's expression alone and hummed softly, looking out the window without removing his hand from Kenny's.

Kenny couldn't admit it, but Craig was right. He uncertainly squeezed Craig's fingers and recieved the slightest of reciprocation from the dark haired boy. There was only about five more minutes until they rolled up into the Tucker driveway, but Kenny didn't much care anymore. His hand was warm from where Craig had been holding it and even as the taller boy stepped out to get his purchases, a fluttery feeling in Kenny's stomach stayed firmly in place.

Craig rounded the car to get to the driver's window and leaned on the door again.

"I'll see you later, Ken." He said quietly and Kenny nodded, cracking a small smile.

"What, no kiss?" He teased.

Craig shoved Kenny playfully through the window and flipped him off.

"I can only stomach so much sap, don't get greedy." Craig called to him as he headed back to the house. He waited until Kenny pulled out from the driveway before shutting the door and Kenny started home, a tingling feeling across his hand.

Kenny didn't want to over think things, but sometimes he couldn't help it. In the silence of the car, shutting off the radio that was advertising the latest boy band, it was really all that was left to do. He reminded himself to talk to Kyle about this feelings crap and see if the smart ass had any easy way to deal with having feelings for someone like Craig Tucker.

0000000

**Author's Note:**

Okay, so this chapter could have gone 8 different ways. Not a word of a lie, I have 4 versions of this saved on my computer and many more that never became save worthy. This was the only version I managed to finish.

With work and everything going on right now, this chapter was actually insanely difficult due to lack of actual plot development, but some of the key transitions had to happen in this chapter so here it is.

The next chapter will come easier, I hope, haha~


	10. Chapter 10

All in all, Kenny could definitely say he was impressed. He'd had a bad feeling on the way here, increased because he'd taken the time to walk and work himself up unintentionally, but it seemed that this was going to be fairly normal. Which was something Kenny had never imagined saying about the person he was visiting.

A few minutes before his alarm had even gone off this morning, Kenny had received a text from Eric Cartman, inviting him over for coffee and offering to drive him to work when they were done. Now right away Kenny had been thrown off. Coffee? Since when did Cartman drink anything domestic like coffee? He'd brushed that off out of curiosity and that same intrigue had led him here.

Cartman and Wendy had moved in to this apartment building a few months ago and Kenny had to give it to them; it was a nice place. Bright flowers and shrubbery lined the building and the patios available to certain tenants. It was sort of tucked away from traffic and the main roads, so it was nice and quiet here. Even when he stepped inside, courtesy of a friendly resident who had let him in without question, the place looked open and sophisticated. Which were two more words Kenny had never associated with Cartman. The number detailed in the text was on the first floor, room 10 it seemed, so Kenny made his way around the stair case and down a hallway across from the main doors until he'd reached the brass number plates fastened to the wall above a little buzzer that served as a doorbell and pushed the button.

Kenny sighed, shuffling his feet on the short carpet outside the door, wondering if he should have just blown Cartman off and stayed home. After his trip with Craig yesterday, he had kind of wanted to talk to Kyle and work something similar to a plan of action out before he had to see the dark haired tease at work today. It hadn't helped that right off the bat, Kyle had been out at work and Kenny had left him a note suggesting a work board so they could write down their shifts and know when the other was out.

The door swung open and Kenny nearly jumped, easily lost in his thoughts of being at home instead of here.

"Hey, Kenny. Eric's just getting dressed, come on in." Wendy Testaburger was the one to open the door and Kenny had to blink a couple of times to take her in. He hadn't had any contact with Wendy since she'd broken up with Stan in high school, so the sight of her now was a little surprising.

She'd cut her hair so it was just above her shoulders, currently pulled to the side in a loose ponytail, and her stomach was visibly larger than Kenny remembered from school. Not that that was saying much, it had been years since he'd seen her.

"Hey, Wendy." Kenny said, awkwardly trying to make conversation with the girl to be polite. "Thanks for having me over."

"No problem," Wendy closed the door as Kenny stepped in and she gave him a friendly smile. "How've you been?"

Kenny very nearly wanted to laugh at her. How had he been? He highly doubted Wendy really cared, but Cartman wasn't in sight just yet so he answered her, albeit reluctantly.

"I've been better." He shrugged, avoiding eye contact.

"Oh?" Wendy pushed, moving to the kitchen and mixing up a small bowl of salad she'd apparently been working on before Kenny had gotten here.

"Family issues, relationship issues, going to be moving in a bit." Kenny said vaguely, not really wanting to go into detail, despite how much he wanted to ask _someone_ about how to handle his next move with Craig.

"He here?" A voice called out from what Kenny assumed was probably the bedroom.

"Yes." Wendy replied. "Get your ass out here."

Kenny narrowed his eyes. That was usually a mean thing to say, right? Why did Wendy smile when she said it?

"I'm coming, you naggy bitch." Cartman emerged from the bedroom, dressed in a decent pair of black pants and a deep golden colored shirt. He moved to wrap an arm around Wendy from behind as she worked on her snack prep and kissed her shoulder affectionately.

Kenny was confused. Cartman caught the look on his friend's face and chuckled.

"We call each other shit all the time, don't worry. Find the place okay?" Cartman asked, briefly patting Wendy's protruding belly before rounding the kitchen counter to stand by Kenny.

"Yeah, it was easy. It's almost like I know this town." Kenny said sarcastically, but he grinned all the same.

"Smart ass." Cartman turned back towards Wendy and added, "Make us some coffee?"

"I'm sorry, make you some coffee what?" Wendy cupped a hand around her ear and leaned in her boyfriend's direction, smirk growing across her lips.

Cartman huffed dramatically and drawled out a long, "Pleeeaaaaaasssse?"

Kenny had to laugh and waved a hand dismissively when Cartman raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, sorry," Kenny explained. "I just never thought you'd be caught saying please to someone."

"I have him trained well." Wendy teased and Cartman flipped her off, though once again, it didn't seem rude. Kenny was pretty sure he was in the company of the strangest couple ever.

When Wendy had made the coffee, Cartman led Kenny to the living room couch to sit down. Wendy took her salad and sat down opposite them in a small comfy lounge chair. The living room itself was fairly nice, set up with soft grey carpeting and light blue walls. The kitchen's metallic appliances matched well with the scheme and even the sofa and chairs had been color matched, though Kenny guessed Wendy had done all of that.

"So catch me up, man." Cartman started, sipping the coffee without waiting for it to cool down. "What's been up in the world of the poor boy in town?"

"Hey, I'm not that poor anymore." Kenny defended.

"He's just messing with you." Wendy chimed in and Cartman stuck his tongue out at her.

"You're always the poor boy, Kenny, you know this. It no longer matters about your actual financial status, this was set in stone by gods long ago." Cartman elaborated.

"It was set up by you." Kenny raised his eyebrow, unable to resist a small smile at Cartman's antics.

"Nope, gods." Cartman ignored Kenny's pointed look and took another sip of coffee. "So?"

Kenny hesitated, wondering exactly what was safe to tell these two. It wasn't like he'd really been friends with Wendy and Cartman had had a nasty habit of ripping on anything he found to his amusement.

"Well, since we last spoke, I forgot to mention that I'm gonna be moving in with Kyle." Kenny started with something easy. "We were actually talking about it before you guys came over for Kyle's birthday."

"It's a pretty nice place there." Cartman said, more for Wendy's benefit than anything else. "If you can stand Kahl, that is."

"Kyle's easy to live with." Kenny shrugged.

Kenny glanced at Wendy, half expecting her to segway from Kyle into something about Stan, but a thought struck him he hadn't pondered before. Did Wendy even know that Stan and Kyle were together?

"How's your 'rents?" Cartman asked and Kenny gave him a grimace.

"I don't really care how they are." Kenny replied coolly.

"Do they know you're moving?"

"Not officially."

"Might want a bodyguard when you tell them." Cartman muttered and Kenny nodded in return.

"You wanna come beat up my parents?" He asked with a half hearted grin.

"I'm not getting into trouble with your drunken family, I have a job to protect." Cartman protested, but he grinned back.

"And a pregnant girlfriend." Wendy added.

"Yeah, but we know you can take care of yourself." Cartman teased.

"True, I only keep you around for snack runs." Wendy answered with a wise nod. "You got a girlfriend, Kenny?"

Dammit, Wendy.

Kenny gave a low hiss and stretched his arms before taking a long and deliberate sip of his coffee.

"Not exactly." He shrugged again, trying to sound as disinterested as he could.

"Not exactly? Girlfriends?" Wendy asked, emphasizing the plural with a wink.

"Boyfriends?" Cartman added, a little more accurately.

"I'm not dating. Just fooling around, like usual." Kenny avoided their eyes.

"Anyone I'd know?" Wendy leaned forward in her chair.

What a gossipy bitch. Kenny couldn't really blame her though, Kyle was the same with his unwavering curiosity when it came to things his friends were hiding from him.

"I guess. Yeah." Kenny answered noncommittally. "Craig Tucker?"

Wendy couldn't help a wicked grin from crossing her lips and Cartman barked out a laugh.

"Ice King?" Cartman clarified with a nickname Craig had earned in middle school.

"He's not that bad." Kenny tried to defend him, knowing now that he'd be prompted into talking about Craig and despite that being just what he wanted to do, he was profoundly uncomfortable doing it with Cartman and Wendy.

Kenny drew his knees in against his chest, curling up on the sofa and sipping cautiously at his drink. He took a deep breath and started with an explanation.

"The relationship trouble I mentioned was him, actually." Kenny caught Wendy nodding in acknowledgment of this statement and wondered why exactly she looked so interested in this subject. Maybe it was a girl thing. Love drama was like an addictive drug to them in this town.

"We've been...I'm not sure what this is, actually. Seeing each other without being in a relationship for a while now. The birthday party was the first time he's really been more affectionate-"

"If you can call Tucker anything close to affectionate, I think you've been brainwashed." Cartman chimed in and Kenny shot him a quick glare.

"Affectionate in his terms, like we sort of curled up on the couch together, that kind of shit." Kenny clarified. "Anyway, I don't know really how to go about hanging out with him anymore since our whole deal was no emotions and it's getting harder to keep to that."

"You like him." Wendy said. It wasn't a question.

Kenny shrugged.

"I think I might."

Contrary to what Kenny was expecting, neither one of them laughed. There was a moment of silence where both Kenny and Cartman pointedly took sips from their coffee, but eventually Cartman spoke up.

"Does he know?"

Kenny shook his head though in truth, he thought Craig probably did know. He just hadn't come out and said it yet.

"It's weird for me too, it's not like I _wanted_ to be overly attached to him or something, but it happened." Kenny mumbled. "I'm seeing him today at work too, I'm kind of freaking out."

Cartman laughed, though it was short lived as Wendy glared at him and he waved his hand to silence her so he could explain.

"No, no, I'm not trying to be mean. Just the idea of Kenny freaking out over romantic troubles is kind of funny. You have to admit, you didn't see this coming." Cartman directed his last words to Wendy and she avoided his eye while she took another mouthful of salad.

"What?" Kenny asked, frowning. "Why is it funny?"

"You're like the town's hot shit, despite being poor and skinny and bor-"

"Eric." Wendy warned.

Cartman cleared his throat and continued, "Doesn't matter. You have skills in this area few others have, you could probably seduce a tree just by looking at it the right way. It's just a little funny that you, of all people, are suddenly all worked up and falling apart over someone who doesn't seem to give a shit about anything. Opposites attract and all that, I guess."

Kenny had to laugh at that, still not believing his playboy-ism was nearly as bad as everyone kept making it out to be, but the core concept was true. Craig was so unlike everyone else he knew that it really wasn't _that_ surprising that he'd been drawn in. It was just troublesome. And annoying. And frustrating.

"What should I do?" He asked in a small voice, immediately hoping this didn't spur Cartman's ridicule on.

"Talk to him." Wendy was the one who answered this time.

"That's hard." Kenny complained, slouching over the sofa dramatically.

"Yeah, it is. But talk to him." Wendy repeated, moving her salad around in the bowl. "It's the only way to know for sure what he feels about you and if it's worth investing more effort in."

"Maybe I can just steal his cell phone and see if he talks about me to other people." Kenny mused.

"Or you could not turn into a stalker." Cartman suggested with a shrug, finishing the last of his coffee and moving to put the cup in the sink. Kenny noticed Wendy's eyes on her boyfriend and wondered briefly if Wendy had been honest when she'd spoken about training Cartman. It wasn't like the fat ass to clean up.

"Finish your coffee, Kenny, I'll take you to work when it gets closer to noon." Cartman called from the kitchen and Kenny instinctively checked his phone. It was only eleven am and it wouldn't take long to get to work. He settled down comfortably on the sofa again and focused on finishing his drink while it seemed Wendy had taken up telling Cartman a list of chores to be done today.

Talking to them hadn't been all that bad, really. Even if the only advice they'd given him was the very thing he'd been avoiding doing with Craig. Ugh, why was this so fucking difficult? He could take physical pain no problem and talk his way out of nearly anything, but the minute it affected his heart...dammit.

**000000000**

Dammit.

Craig was out of sight in the back room when Kenny got to work so his initial panic at having to see the idiot before work was for nothing. He managed to calm himself a bit with deep breaths and scold himself for acting like such a girl over this before going out to the sales floor. A co-worker of his that had recently come back from a vacation was in with him today, sporting a nice tan and perfectly curled hair. Kenny muttered a quick hello to her and she turned around to smile at him.

"Hey, Kenneth." The name tag on her shirt read Danielle and Kenny remembered that this was the one girl in all of the store who refused to shorten anyone's given name. Kenny had seen someone in Cosmetics call her Dani once and get scolded for the rest of the day. Something about 'Our parents gave us these names for a reason' and 'It's so childish to use nicknames'. Kenny didn't much care.

"Hi, Danielle." Kenny replied half heartedly. "How was your trip?"

If he was being honest, Kenny didn't hear a word Danielle said as she excitedly went off about her Caribbean trip and how her husband had been so sweet to her and...well, he didn't know what else had gone on. He didn't care. Girl gossip wasn't very interesting to him, especially when it was coming from the mouth of a stranger. He'd sit through anything Karen wanted to tell him, but she was family.

He was brought back into the conversation when Danielle said, "We've got a lot of stuff to do today."

Oh goodie.

Three hours went by fast and soon Danielle was heading home, leaving Kenny to finish up their list of chores alone. So far, there was still no sign of Craig and Kenny was beginning to wonder if the boy had just called in sick. He didn't have much time to ponder that, however, because two very unwelcome guests had crept up in his field of vision.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

"Kenny…" Carol started up and Kenny tried judging just how far gone his parents were, both of them standing in front of his counter and Stuart's face arranged in a less than agreeable expression. Usually when they were drunk they stayed home. How they'd even gotten here was beyond Kenny.

"I heard you walked out on your mother." Stuart's voice was low and Kenny backed up a step instinctively.

"I had something to do." Kenny bluffed.

"Listen, you little shit-" Stuart leaned forward but Carol caught him and for a moment, Kenny was grateful to his mother.

"Listen," Stuart edited himself. "As long as you live under our roof, you'll do as we say. If your mother was speaking to you, you are to be respectful, do you hear?"

Kenny bit down on his lower lip, comments on how disrespectful the family was by nature or to break the news of his moving threatening to slip out with every breath he took.

"We want you back home. No more playing around with your friends, you live with us, you'll come back home." Stuart clapped a hand down on the counter for emphasis and Kenny's eyes were drawn to it. Stuart had cuts on his hand, probably from breaking a beer bottle or something stupid, but the man clearly wasn't allowing them time to heal.

"After your shift, we'll come pick you up, what time are you off?"

Kenny felt an icy grip take hold of him, flooding his body with an inability to speak and fear that his parents might actually get their way. He didn't want to start a riot at work, so his normal quips weren't acceptable. If he said no, there'd be hell to pay. But if he said yes...

"Is there a problem?"

Kenny jumped and looked at his parents, but neither of them were looking at him. A hand closed over Kenny's shoulder and he turned his gaze to see Craig standing next to him, his dark eyes focused on Stuart.

"What time does Kenny get off work?" Stuart asked, obviously assuming that Craig worked with Kenny.

"We can't tell associate information to customers." Craig answered and Kenny bit his lip again. Craig's nonchalant nature and lack of any real polite courtesy might just push on that riot Kenny was afraid of. He opened his mouth to just tell his parents he'd be off at six thirty, despite his schedule ending at six so he'd have time to escape, but Craig covered his mouth with one of his hands.

"The manager asked me to bring Kenny to the back room to help sort out storage, so you can talk to him at a later date." Craig lied flawlessly and for a second, even Kenny looked up at him curiously, wondering what the manager would ask that for but it eventually sunk in. Craig was giving him an escape.

He nodded and Craig let go of him to head back to the set of swinging doors that led to the backroom that was present in every section like this. Kenny gave his parents a false look of apology and started to follow, but Stuart stopped them both by raising his goddamn voice.

"Kenny, come back here now and answer my question. Stop behaving like a child!"

_Big words_, Kenny thought. Maybe they weren't as drunk as he'd assumed.

Before Kenny could turn back, Craig had passed him to reach the counter first.

"Ken is doing his job, like an adult should. It's you who should stop behaving like a child. If you don't stop interrupting his work, I'll be well within my rights to call security and have you escorted out." Craig had his hands planted on the counter, leaning to what Kenny believed was far too close to his parents violent reach, his voice at a level Kenny had never heard before.

Without waiting for an answer, Craig withdrew and grabbed Kenny by the arm, pulling him through the doors and away from his section. Kenny wanted to protest and say that he was the only one in Bakery until six and that he needed to stay there, but common sense and straight up fear kept his mouth shut. He kind of thought he might be sick if he tried to speak. Craig led him to the staff room and the moment the boy had let go of his arm, Kenny collapsed into an available chair, his legs weak.

The staff room was empty so there wasn't a worry of being caught in a vulnerable state and Craig even shut the main door to prevent anyone from coming in.

"You okay?" Craig asked, crouching down next to Kenny and resting a warm hand on the blonde knee.

"Thanks." Kenny breathed out, his voice barely above a whisper. He tried to laugh, but it came out shaky. "I'm not even sure why I'm so freaked out."

"Because you're sensitive." Craig stated and Kenny chuckled uneasily again.

"I'm fucking manly, dude." Kenny teased. He was trying to be funny, overthrow his current state with humor, but it just kind of made him want to cry. Parents shouldn't inflict a state of paralyzing fear and disappointment from their children, it just didn't seem right.

"Yeah." Craig rolled his eyes. "Real manly."

"Thanks though." Kenny repeated, looking at Craig properly this time. "For taking me out of there."

Craig shrugged and moved to pull up another chair so he could sit across from Kenny.

"I was going up to see if you were in today and saw them bitching at you. Wasn't hard to figure out you needed some help."

"My hero." Kenny drawled, smiling despite what had just happened.

The two of them sat in silence for a bit, Kenny taking deep breaths to calm himself down and Craig absently running his hands along Kenny's legs. Strangely enough, Craig's stroking was working quite well to calm Kenny down and the blonde focused his eyes on the man's hands. This would be a perfect time to bring up what Wendy had told him to do. He was already losing his cool status by being scared of his own parents, so what could it hurt to bring this up?

"We should go on a date." Kenny mumbled and Craig glanced up at him curiously. It wasn't exactly what he'd wanted to say, but it was close enough so he'd run with it.

"Hm?"

"I mean...like, I owe you now." Kenny shrugged, already feeling himself chickening out now that he'd opened his mouth. "Let me take you on a date."

"Dates weren't part of our deal." Craig didn't seem particularly put off by this idea, regardless of his words so Kenny pressed onwards.

"It doesn't have to be like...overly romantic or anything. Dinner and a movie, we can just go casually. Nothing formal. I'll pay for everything." Kenny hoped and, were he a religious kid, might have even prayed that Craig would just say yes and not make a big deal out of this. He'd never seen relationships as something big and daunting, but then again, not everyone had a crush on the intimidating Craig Tucker.

"You'll pay?" Craig smirked slightly and lowered his head, his hands slowing in their journey along Kenny's work pants. "I guess."

Kenny would have given a triumphant fist pump if he weren't sure Craig would see it.

"Tonight then?" Kenny asked.

"Sure. But give me a chance to go home and shower, I've been in that fucking dank back room all day." Craig said, withdrawing one of his hands to run his fingers through his hair. He might have been checking to see if his hair was greasy, but all Kenny thought was that he looked fucking good when he played with his hair. Oh the joys of having a crush.

Kenny nearly rolled his eyes at his own reaction, but caught himself to simply nod and say, "Yeah, I'll come pick you up later. I kinda want to get changed first too. When are you off?"

"Five." Craig answered, looking at Kenny and raising an eyebrow. "When do you actually get off work, now that your parents are gone?"

"Six." Kenny glanced at the staff room doors and made a face. "I...kind of don't want to go back out there though."

"Ask the manager?" Craig suggested, standing up and holding out a hand for Kenny.

"I might. Either way, come get you around eight?" Kenny changed the subject back to the date, letting Craig grab his hand and pull him to his feet.

"Sure."

**0000000**

It wasn't often when Kenny bragged about having the best managers every because...well, honestly, they were kind of crap. But today, when he'd asked to go home early and reluctantly explained the situation, his department manager had had the good sense to let him leave. Even asked for a description of his parents so they couldn't get into the store or at least not into his section without someone there to mediate.

He all but collapsed onto the couch when he got home, which was rather unlucky for Kyle, who was sitting on the couch at the time.

"Dude, you're heavy, get off my legs." Kyle complained but Kenny just nuzzled his cheek against Kyle's pant leg and mumbled out, "No."

"Short shift today?"

"Sort of. Parents came around. Started shit."

That got Kyle's attention.

"Really? What did they do?"

"Tried to get me to come back and live with them. Craig saved me." Kenny explained briefly, not really wanting to go into detail.

"Craig?" Kyle arched an eyebrow. "Nice."

"We're going on a date tonight." Kenny said cheerfully, cuddling Kyle's legs again, ignoring the protests of the redhead.

"That's nice. How about getting off me then to get ready?" Kyle suggested in a dull voice.

"No, he's not off until five. Cuddle me and love it, dammit."

Kyle grinned, trying not to laugh and giving a very dramatic sigh before saying, "Fine, but sit up and I'll cuddle you."

Kenny rose, letting Kyle shift into a more comfortable spot and settled himself in under Kyle's arm. The redhead was warm and Kenny nearly purred, looping his arms around Kyle's slim middle and letting Kyle resume channel surfing he'd started since Kenny had gotten home.

The idea of going out on a date with Craig was keeping Kenny buzzing. An actual date. Where he could treat that stoic bastard for being so goddamn sweet without warning. Maybe he'd find a way to tell if Craig liked him through these means. Kenny knew it was a little strange to be thinking that way, but a simple cuddle from Craig had had Kenny reevaluating everything their deal had consisted of, so maybe Craig would be the same way when Kenny was the one offering the affection.

He had the whole evening planned out, had even checked movie times on his phone on the walk home today. The only thing he didn't know was...

"What should I wear?" Kenny mused aloud.

"Good question." Kyle was of no help.

**0000000**

**Author's Note:**

So I'm trying to get back to weekly updates. Sundays are my deadlines, I'm thinking, for those lovely people who would want to know.

There will be a bonus shorter chapter to this one detailing the date these two go on; I meant to add it in this chapter, but I didn't want to overwhelm this chapter with word count.

After the bonus chapter, I'll be continuing with the next sequence : )


	11. Chapter 10 and a Half

It was precisely eight o'clock when Kenny rolled up to Craig's house and the blonde silently congratulated himself on being there in perfect time. He'd panicked last minute and begged Kyle to help him find an outfit and reluctantly, the red head had let him borrow one of his green over-shirts and dark jeans. Kyle was roughly the same size as Kenny, but the blonde had employed the use of a belt because he was just a bit more malnourished than most. He hoped that'd change with his moving in with Kyle.

Craig stepped out of his house and locked the door and, for once, no one leaned out the door or spoke to him from within the house. Or at least, Kenny assumed no one was talking to him because Craig silently made his way to the passenger seat of the car and got in, flashing the tiniest of smiles Kenny almost thought he'd imagined at him in the driver's seat.

"Looking good, Craig. Damn, if I knew you cleaned up so well, I'd have asked you on a date weeks ago." Kenny put on an exaggerated voice and playfully wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at his passenger.

"Shove it, asshat, I look the same as usual." Craig returned, but he smirked and lifted a hand to absently brush at the fringe of dark hair in front of his eyes. If Kenny hadn't known better he'd say that Craig was flattered, but he wasn't about to say that to the boy's face.

"Alright, so I have a question for you." Kenny said, pulling out of the Tucker's driveway and turning the wheels to go left. "How do you feel about Japanese food?"

"I...like it, I guess. I haven't really tried much." Craig shrugged.

"Well you're about to." Kenny smirked and Craig chuckled quietly, leaning back in his seat.

**00000**

The restaurant was nearly empty when they arrived, which suited Kenny just fine. They snagged a table near the back, a booth with a subtle light hanging above them. The chopsticks were positioned over a tray for sauces and the color scheme was an impressively done mixture of red, black, and green.

Kenny let Craig sit down first, and after some deliberate indecision to annoy the blonde, Craig finally selected a side and slid into the booth.

"Gotta have the best view, huh?" Kenny said, laughing as the waitress smiled at their antics.

"Of course." Craig nodded and took the menu from their server. "I'll also be honest with you and tell you I don't know what any of this is."

"Really?" Kenny asked.

"If you'd like, I can describe some of the popular dishes." The waitress offered, clasping her hands in front of her and drifting over to Craig's side of the table.

"It's okay, he can do it for me." Craig declined, looking pointedly at Kenny. "Won't you?"

Kenny tried to hide a smile to no avail and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, dear." He said dramatically.

The waitress went off to give them time to decide and Kenny leaned across the table to say, "What do you think sounds good? And then I'll tell you what it is."

"Um...well I know some of these. I mean like, the rolls. Tuna roll and salmon roll are pretty hard to misunderstand."

A good ten minutes was probably spent explaining dishes to the newly discovered picky side of Craig. Kenny had nearly called the waitress back over to explain the rest, but it seemed that his last description had sold Craig on a meal. They ordered and sat back in the booth, both trying to think of something to say.

Still thinking.

Craig shuffled his feet on the floor and used the sound as an excuse to awkwardly look under the table and away from Kenny.

Kenny tapped his fingers on the table, trying to somehow convert his made up tune into a conversation starter.

"So, I don't date much." Craig broke the silence with a confession, slouching over in his side of the booth.

"Me neither." Kenny admitted with a sigh. "I kinda just hang out at clubs. Well, used to."

"I don't do any of that. I just hang out at home." Craig shrugged.

"It's be easier if you were a girl." Kenny said, catching a raised eyebrow from Craig and explaining, "Well, it's easier to have a conversation with a girl, you just say 'You look nice tonight' or 'how was your day?' and they fill up the spaces."

Craig nodded slowly.

"Yeah, you already know how my day was so...kind of leaves nothing." Craig mumbled, fiddling with his fingers.

"We could talk about sports?" Kenny really hoped Craig didn't want to because Kenny himself wasn't really into sports.

"I don't watch them." Good.

"Video games?"

"I'm not really playing any right now. Not seriously." Okay...

"Movies?"

"...We could." Jackpot.

Kenny leaned over the table, chin in his hands and hummed idly.

"Well, I suggested a movie earlier, so what kind are you into? I've checked a few for times, so we've got a selection." Kenny inquired.

Craig shrugged.

"Right now, I'm kind of feeling...generic adventure shit." Craig leaned back in his seat as the waitress arrived with their drinks and returned the question to Kenny. "What do you want to see?"

"Adventure it is." Kenny smiled, pulling out his phone and checking to see if the restaurant had wifi. Almost every place with a coffee maker in it had free wifi and, to his delight, so did this place. He searched up the name of the theater that was close by and checked movie times and titles. There were two adventure type movies, one animated and the other live. He held the phone up for Craig to see.

"What do you think?"

Craig narrowed his eyes, having to squint to see the words on the screen, but eventually tapped the animated one.

"I don't like the lead actor in the other one, he's a dick."

"You don't even know him." Kenny laughed.

"He _sounds_ like he'd be a dick." Craig corrected in an exaggerated tone.

The food came in a decent enough time, Kenny managing to waste time by prompting Craig to discuss favorite movies. Turns out the stoic individual's favorite movie was an animated one about a city of gold. Sounded almost like he'd just picked a movie at random, but Kenny knew the film and when he'd quoted a line, Craig had managed to perfectly play along with the next character's script.

Kenny made a mental note to download this movie and suggest watching it with Craig sometime...maybe he'd get to invite Craig over or get back into Craig's house while doing so...

Kenny had to stop thinking about movies when he spotted Craig doing something odd. His plate had arrived, a dish with noodles and chicken, topped with various veggies, but it appeared that Craig didn't care for the veggies. At all. So much so, that he'd begun awkwardly piling them on the side of his plate. Umm…

"What are you doing?" Kenny asked slowly.

"I don't like a lot of this. Mushrooms...bean sprouts...I don't know what this is." Craig held up a soggy circular green thing and Kenny answered, "Cucumber."

"...Cucumber's not meant to be warm and soggy, gross." Craig made a face and stuck it on the growing pile of food.

"So you don't want to eat that?" Kenny asked, smirking as he was hit with a sudden idea.

"No."

"So you'd be mad if I tipped that over, would you?" Kenny drawled.

"Yes."

Kenny wordlessly reached over with his chopsticks and expertly toppled the pile of veggies back over the noodles on the plate. Craig froze in his work and pursed his lips before sighing and looking up at Kenny, who was trying very hard not to laugh.

"You little shit." Craig said, but he couldn't help but grin just a bit. "Thanks for that."

Kenny just beamed happily and went back to his own food while Craig made a new pile. They ate in mostly silence, both surprisingly hungry now that the food was in front of them. Craig seemed to like the plate he'd ordered, because by the time he was done, the plate around the veggie mountain was clean. He'd even picked the little slightly burnt pieces of noodle off the plate and paired them with left over bits of chicken.

The waitress came over and cleared their plates, looking strangely at the veggies, but not saying a word. It took both of them quite a bit of effort to keep from laughing at her expression and Kenny sent an accusatory look at Craig, who simply blinked innocently and looked around as if trying to pin the blame on a stranger close to him.

It was odd to think that the simple action of pulling out his debit card and paying for the whole meal was actually an ego boost for Kenny, but he couldn't deny he felt fucking awesome being able to show off like that for Craig. Not that the dark haired boy really cared, but it was still nice to be the one in control.

"Now...movie!"

"I want popcorn." Craig stated.

"...Yes, I'll buy you popcorn." Kenny chuckled.

**000000**

Kenny hadn't planned it but apparently today was cheap night for the movies. He'd been pleasantly surprised and had even gave a "hurrah!" of celebration, only to have Craig tell him to calm down. He was in such a good mood, in fact, that he'd wrapped his arm around Craig without thinking in the concession line up.

He froze once he realized what he was doing and cast a subtle glance at his companion but was a little stunned to see that Craig hadn't even flinched. Or moved away. Or anything. To test his luck, Kenny gave Craig a squeeze and sure enough, the boy shifted. Though not to pull away. Craig simply lifted his arm above Kenny's, letting the blonde have a hold on his waist instead. He didn't say anything, didn't leave, didn't even look around to see if people had noticed two boys being closer than normal in the line up.

Kenny was pretty sure he'd died somewhere along the dinner and was just imagining this, but he'd roll with it.

"No butter on the popcorn, it makes it taste like dishwater." Craig said to Kenny, making a face at the last word.

"Dishwater?" Kenny questioned. He'd never thought the butter really didn't anything bad to the popcorn. Then again, he didn't usually go to the movies and buy popcorn so he didn't really know anything about it.

"It gets all soggy and gross." Craig explained, stepping up in the line and placing a hand over the one Kenny had at his waist to pull the blonde with him.

Kenny was trying very..._very_ hard not to smile too obviously.

The server certainly noticed what it seemed no one else had and gave them a funny look as they ordered. Especially when Craig put one of _his_ arms around _Kenny's_ waist so he could lean over and grab a small bag of M&M's without pulling out of Kenny's grip. Yep, Kenny was sure he was dead. It was all he could do to remain calm and pay the server and grab his own drink while Craig freed up both his arms again to carry his food.

The theater itself was fairly empty; a few groups had positioned themselves near the back of the room and two younger groups had claimed the good seats in the front and second rows. Kenny was about to ask Craig where he wanted to sit, but the dark haired man had already selected row four and was sliding in to what he deemed to be the middle.

"You go to movies often?" Kenny asked.

"Enough to know where I like to sit." Craig answered, patting the seat next to him and going about setting up his M&M's in the cup holder and his popcorn in his lap.

Kenny sat down and took a sip of his drink before setting it into his own cup holder. The movie was bound to start any minute and Kenny was glad that he'd checked times before he'd come here. About three movies out of the six available cinemas here started around the same time, so he'd taken a chance hoping that Craig would want to see one of the three. Turns out he'd been lucky.

The lights dimmed within five minutes of them sitting down and Craig had already started eating his popcorn. Kenny was content just to steal little bits from the bag, but Craig smacked his hand away and insisted on only giving him pieces he would deem worthy to give up. It would have made Kenny feel childish...but then again, Craig fucking Tucker was feeding him fucking popcorn on a fucking date. Kenny was happier than he had been since Kyle had offered to let him move in. Perhaps even a bit happier.

The blonde would be honest if anyone had asked and confessed that he hadn't been paying attention to the previews. All of his attention was focused on Craig in his peripheral vision and the occasional bites of popcorn he'd catch coming towards him. He decided to push his luck and reached over to rest his hand on Craig's knee.

Craig leg was warm and Kenny could almost feel Craig stiffen at his touch, but the ebony haired male relaxed after a while and Kenny gave a cautious stroke of his thumb along the outside of Craig's thigh.

"Getting a little touchy, are we?" Craig whispered, leaning close to Kenny's ear so he wouldn't disturb the other movie-goers.

"I could touch more, if you'd like." Kenny teased, trailing his hand up Craig's thigh and managing to lightly graze his fingers along the covered zipper of Craig's jeans before the man pushed his hand back down by his knee and hissed, "I don't do public eye, so don't get any ideas, Ken."

"Oh, I have many ideas already." Kenny replied quietly before turning his attention back to the movie, which was starting its intro scene.

Though most of his attention was genuinely on the movie for the majority of the time, Kenny was surprised at just how much popcorn Craig could eat. He'd gotten a medium bag and the thing was gone by what Kenny guessed was approximately halfway through the movie. Perhaps it had come with spending too much time with Kyle when he _had_ gone to the movies, but the red head took forever to eat something. Especially little pieces like popcorn or chips. He always ate them one at a time, which had conjured many jokes about Kyle potentially being afraid to choke on one extra piece of popcorn. Those jokes had stopped once Kyle had punched him to make him shut up.

When Craig lowered his empty bag to the theater floor, Kenny subtly moved his hand upwards a bit. He hadn't really intended on pushing his luck, but he'd been unbelievably full of the lucky stuff today, so why not?

Craig didn't seem to notice, so Kenny moved his hand up again. It was a bit awkward to be at this angle, but he shifted in his own seat and managed to get somewhat comfy while he proceeded to his goal. Craig didn't even realize Kenny's hand had moved until the blonde gripped the front of his jeans gently. The dark haired man jumped in surprise and looked over at Kenny with a stern look, but Kenny pretended to be enjoying the movie while checking on Craig with his peripheral vision only. He continued to gently knead the area his hand was at and was pleased after about a minute when Craig squirmed under his attention. Craig's hand was at Kenny's wrist, trying to push the hand away, but he wasn't being very firm about it. Or at least, if he was, Kenny would have to say Craig was surprisingly weak. And he knew that to be untrue, having been told by the boy himself that he worked out.

Kenny's fingers gently moved over the stiff fabric, teasing Craig cautiously so as not to alert anyone to what he was doing. Kenny bit his lower lip as he heard a small but sharp intake of breath and Craig's leg twitched. It wasn't until Kenny could start to feel a bit of actual response from under the jeans and heard a barely audible sort of groan that Craig decided he'd had enough and removed Kenny's hand from him entirely. He sent a glare Kenny's way and the blonde had the decency to smile apologetically, placing his hand out and gesturing for Craig to hold it.

"You can make sure my hand doesn't go anywhere you don't want it to if you hold it." Kenny whispered quietly to Craig and in the dim light the screen provided right now, Kenny could see Craig roll his eyes and lean in to reply.

"You just want me to hold your hand again."

"So what if I do?" Kenny asked.

Craig paused, as if he'd expected Kenny to try and deny it. Honestly, Kenny was a little stunned by his own honesty, since he'd been panicking earlier over how to go about this date thing without giving away his true feelings and scaring Craig off. It quickly became apparent that Craig didn't scare easily because the boy complied eventually, lacing his fingers in between Kenny's and giving the blonde's hand a squeeze.

Kenny was in fucking heaven. No, he'd been to heaven. This was better.

The movie came to an end without much more interruption by Kenny, save for one sneaky kiss to Craig's cheek he'd succeeded in stealing while Craig's focus was on the movie. As the credits rolled, Kenny looked over at Craig with a bright smile.

"What are you so happy about? You like the movie?" Craig asked.

Kenny had to hold his tongue before the words 'I like you' slipped out, but he corrected himself internally before saying, "Yeah, but I'm more-so happy that you agreed to do this with me."

"It's not a big deal." Craig arched an eyebrow.

"I know it's not to you, but it makes me feel better that after taking care of me when my cheek was busted up and defending me now against my parents, I can finally show you something fun in return." Kenny explained, again surprising himself with his honesty.

"If I'd wanted to be repaid for being a decent human being, I'd have charged up front." Craig said, standing up and releasing Kenny's hand. "Let's get out of here, I think they want to clean."

Kenny stood and led the way out of the aisle, continuing the conversation only when they exited the theater.

"I don't mean to think you actually _need_ me to _make_ you have fun, but it's how I roll so stuff it and be happy, okay?" Kenny smiled and Craig's look of mild disapproval slowly disintegrated into a smile of sorts as well.

"You're such a faggot it's almost funny." Craig said with a chuckle, but Kenny felt a pang of familiarity as he realized Craig's near insult had no real malice to it. Much like Wendy and Eric had been with each other, though Kenny couldn't see the positive implications of him calling Craig a bitch right now, even if he was joking.

"Well, let me drive you home, milady." Kenny made a compromise with himself and used a term that still let him joke but not get punched for being insulting.

"Call me that again, I fucking dare you." Craig warned, but there was a smirk in place across his lips and his scolding finger jabbed Kenny in the chest before they reached Kenny's car and he separated to get into the passenger side again.

Kenny let Craig fiddle with the radio again while he pulled out of the theater parking lot and began the drive back to Craig's. The boy had some wicked obsession with his stereo because even though Kenny hadn't changed it since Craig had last played with it, he deemed it necessary to find a new station.

"So how was that for a date?" Kenny inquired, unable to keep curiosity down while the minutes they had together tonight were draining away.

"It wasn't bad. My date was a bit handsy," Craig sent Kenny a very obvious look. "But other than that...it was fun, I guess."

"You guess?"

"Fine, it was fun." Craig repeated more firmly. "Consider your nonexistent debt paid."

"Excellent!" Kenny cheered playfully and Craig settled back in his seat as the radio played some new hits by artists Kenny had never even heard of. "Also, where do you find these stations?"

"I listen to radio on my computer when I'm reading or bored." Craig shrugged. "You find all kinds of radio stations when you have the almighty Google."

"You need to get out more." Kenny teased.

"Take me out more."

"Is that a dare?"

"Do you accept?"

"Hell yes I do." Kenny raised his voice and Craig stifled a laugh that had slipped out unintentionally.

"So next day off, my place?" Craig suggested, making a clear contradiction that Kenny didn't miss.

"Absolutely, let's stay indoors, the outdoors are scary." Kenny nodded enthusiastically.

"Fucking hell." Craig broke the playful banter by laughing, leaning forward in his seat as he did so and actually _laughing_.

There wasn't a thing on earth right now that could wipe the smile off of Kenny's face.

"We're here~" He sang as he pulled into the Tucker driveway again and Craig calmed himself down, resting back in his seat and looking over at Kenny with what could almost be taken as fondness. At least love-blind Kenny was seeing it as fondness, he wasn't sure what it was actually, but he sure hoped he wasn't the only one having the fucking time of their lives right now.

"You done good, kid." Craig said, his voice calm. "You done good."

"Aren't I the best?" Kenny grinned.

"Whoa, let's not go that far." Craig held up a hand but unclasped his seat belt to lean over and press his lips against Kenny's jaw. "You're an awesome gaylord, though."

The next words slipped out without Kenny quite realizing it and he stiffened when he noticed Craig pull away a little.

"I try. I like it when you have fun, I get to hear you laugh."

Craig paused a moment before giving Kenny's jaw another kiss and settling back into his seat. He observed Kenny for a second before giving the barest hint of a smirk.

"I'm not as cold hearted as everyone seems to think, Ken. I'm a fucking jackass, I completely own that, but I _am_ capable of fun. I like it when you're surprised by that." Craig replied.

Kenny laughed a little nervously, relieved that Craig hadn't been taken aback at his comment, or at least didn't appear to be.

"Well, I do need to get some sleep. Feel free to text. And...like...I don't know, sleep well when you do?" Craig said, propping open the car door and slipping out. The door closed behind him and he flashed his middle finger through the window, accompanied by another smirk and a wink that made Kenny's heart skip just a little in his chest. The fuck was this boy doing to him? And the fuck had all that meant?

Kenny was too content to over think it, but his heart ached in his chest with the hope that Craig had maybe just accidentally revealed a bit of feeling for him. He had to suggest this date shit more often and, more than that right now, he needed to go home and gush about it to Kyle. He had to talk about it or he thought he might explode. All thoughts of his parents were gone and for once, Kenny was just plain happy. Who'd have believed it was because of Craig Tucker?

**000000**

**Author's Note:**

Posted at roughly 11pm, my time! STILL SUNDAY. I MADE IT.

We're getting a little development here~


	12. Chapter 11 (now the chapters are off)

"Normally, I don't like to go anywhere in weather like this."

Kenny made a face out the window of the Tucker living room, watching the rain make intimidating puddles across the road. The street hadn't been re-paved and the natural holes and dips were making for very dangerous conditions.

"Well, you didn't have to come over." Craig called from the couch.

Kenny glanced back at him and grinned.

"But I'd hate to disappoint you. You did invite me over." Kenny teased, slowly walking over to where Craig was sitting.

"Whatevs, man, I'd have just watched TV alone." Craig shrugged noncommittally, but a hint of a smirk appeared when Kenny sat down next to him with a deliberately alluring look.

"Wouldn't that be lonely?" Kenny reached out with one hand, dragging his index finger along Craig's chest.

"With how often you text? I couldn't be lonely if I tried." Craig raised an eyebrow and made as if to bite Kenny's finger, causing the blonde to withdraw with a laugh. "So, TV or video games?"

Kenny sucked his lower lip in between his teeth and bit down gently, trying to figure out how best to convey what he really wanted to get from today. He'd come up with a decision last night during a conversation with Kyle and had deliberately kept himself from thinking too hard on it until now to avoid a repeat offense like the last time he'd been over here.

Kyle had brought up a valid point, but Kenny couldn't bring himself to quite admit that he might be right. He'd been reviewing the conversation until he'd fallen asleep last night and now his brain was involuntarily doing it again.

**00 Last Night 00**

"So, how was the date?" Kyle was still up when Kenny got through the door, curled up in a blanket on the couch watching some shark movie he didn't seem too interested in.

"I...it went well." Kenny beamed happily and fell down onto the couch beside Kyle. He hadn't stopped smiling the whole way home and his entire body was buzzing with something very similar to excitement.

"Just well?" Kyle raised an eyebrow. "You're practically ready to start bouncing off the walls by the looks of you."

Kenny leaned his head against the back of the couch and turned to look at Kyle. He clasped his hands in his lap to try and keep still and his heart gave a nearly painful thud in his chest as he prepared to say the words he'd so far avoided saying out loud.

"Kyle...I think I love him." Kenny murmured, smile still in place.

Kyle muted the television and shifted in his blanket cocoon to face Kenny on the couch. He rested an elbow against the back of the couch and propped his head up to listen.

"So _well_ was an understatement." Kyle grinned.

"You know me, I don't date." Kenny shrugged. "But he kinda makes me want to. I've never had that much fun with someone I'd been intimate with. Usually it's just about sex or showing off to other people what arm candy we are-"

"Real modest there." Kyle interrupted and Kenny chuckled.

"I'm awesome, don't kill my flame. Anyway, I mean it. It's never been _fun_ before now. And he's _so_ different from the people I used to go out with." Kenny took a deep breath. "And I think he kind of likes me too. It's hard to tell, you know Craig, but I think he does."

"Ask him?"

"Kyle, no one asks that cheesy shit anymore. It's too obvious." Kenny shook his head.

"And Craig is anything but obvious." Kyle stated and Kenny changed his action to a nod.

"I was kind of thinking though. We haven't really been...intimate for a while." Kenny mused.

"I don't want to hear about your libido, I'll tell you right now." Kyle warned but Kenny ignored him.

"I'm kinda thinking I should sleep with him. I-...well, I mean, I want to, but I'm kind of worried that it'll be too much after that if it turns out he doesn't like me like I like him." Kenny was more saying these things for his own benefit with the perk of having someone agree or disagree with him, but Kyle was already splitting his attention between Kenny and the shark movie, entirely disinterested in where the conversation was headed. "What do you think I should do?"

"Have sex with him if you want." Kyle offered unhelpfully.

"That...but do you think it would be tougher afterwards? If he doesn't like me?" Kenny pushed.

Kyle sighed and glanced at Kenny before going back to his movie.

"Craig's not an easy guy to figure out, but he's not _that_ complicated. If he didn't like you, why would he go on a date with you or come over here for my birthday? It's not like you're coaxing him with physical favors, he came over just to hang out. That's got to say something. If you think it's time to sleep with him, that's entirely up to you, but I don't think you're the only one who feels this way." Kyle shot Kenny a quick smile and added, "You wanna watch the rest of this movie with me?"

Kenny paused, sort of wanting to just talk about his date some more but knowing that ultimately, Kyle wasn't interested in that aspect of most people's lives.

"What's happened?" He asked.

"It's a shark movie, what do you think has happened? Some idiots went swimming where they shouldn't have and now a shark is after them. Two are dead so far." Kyle explained and Kenny reluctantly started to watch the movie...which turned to genuine interest pretty quickly, the shark was fairly well done.

**00 Current 00**

"Ken?" Craig asked, bringing Kenny out of his thoughts and the blonde stumbled over his reply.

"I-...I don't really want to do those things. Not right now. Later we can."

"You have a better idea?"

Kenny smiled and leaned in to kiss the skin just below Craig's ear.

"I have many."

Kenny shifted on the couch so he could face Craig better, resting his hands on Craig's shoulders and pressing his lips to Craig's cheek and jaw-line. The taller boy seemed like he might have wanted to say something, but eventually Craig simply kept his mouth shut and tilted his head to the side to give Kenny more room.

It had been a while since they'd really lavished any attention on each other and Kenny was determined to make up for lost time. After the date last night, romantic intentions or not, he wasn't about to go back to ignoring how he felt. He wasn't about to go off and actually tell Craig either, fuck no, but ignoring the fluttery feeling in his stomach and how his heart sped up when he heard Craig's breath escape him as Kenny gently bit at his neck was absolutely out of the question.

"I was beginning to think you were going all soft on me." Craig said, a small grin at his lips as he felt Kenny push his hands up under the hem of his shirt and cold fingertips slid over his stomach.

"I could make a comment about being stiff or firm, if you'd like to hear it." Kenny teased, diverting one of his hands down to ghost its way along the front of Craig's pants before rejoining his other one that was slowly working Craig's shirt up.

"Ah, you have such a way with words." Craig rolled his eyes and lifted his own hands to Kenny's shoulders, pushing the blonde back and away from his neck. For a split second, Kenny's gut twisted with the worry that Craig no longer wanted to do any of this, but his concern was ill placed.

Craig shifted on the couch and stood up, fingers curling around the fabric of Kenny's sleeve and tugging him up as well.

"Where are you going?" Kenny asked, letting himself be led over to the staircase.

"_We_ are going to my room. I'm not going to start this shit in the living room when Ruby might come back for lunch or something stupid like that."

"Shit?" Kenny laughed. "Oh, so being intimate is shit now? I guess we don't have to do it, if that's the case."

Kenny felt his back hit the wall opposite the stair case banister and Craig looked at him seriously for a second before smirking ever so slightly and leaning in until his breath was right at Kenny's ear.

"You try to back out on me again and I'll have to punish you." Craig murmured and Kenny felt his knees go weak without his consent.

Fuck.

"P-punish me?" Kenny stammered, feeling Craig tug his sleeve again and trying not to look so eager as they continued up the stairs.

"Wow, I didn't think such cheesy lines would get to you, but if that's what it takes then yes." Craig chuckled softly, letting go of Kenny only after they were in his room and having the sense to close the door for good measure.

"So what kind of punishment would we be talking about here?" Kenny asked, smirking widely and crossing his arms. "How does Craig Tucker punish someone?"

Craig turned to Kenny and time seemed to slow down a little. Craig's posture relaxed drastically and his usually blank expression turned to one Kenny found infuriatingly alluring. Each step Craig took towards Kenny was slow and deliberate and Craig knew exactly what kind of control he was asserting over the blonde right now. And Kenny knew Craig knew exactly how it was affecting him. Dammit.

"You really want to know? It's not the kind of punishment for lightweights." Craig's voice was low and Kenny was having a little difficulty trying to remain firm against the sound of it. "It's got a lot to do with my hands."

Oh god.

"I find just the right place to wrap my fingers around," Craig was closing in at this point and Kenny dropped his arms to his sides, clearing his throat as he tried very hard not to picture what Craig might have been describing. "-and then," Craig lifted his hand and Kenny closed his eyes, hoping it would help keep him calm.

Unfortunately for Kenny, Craig's fingers found themselves pinching around Kenny's earlobe and tugging almost painfully. It was certainly enough to startle Kenny and the blonde yelped, opening his eyes and reaching up to smack Craig's hand away and cover his ear.

"You're so easy." Craig said, a smirk crossing his lips. "All this time with me and you haven't learned to expect this?"

"You're such an asshole." Kenny laughed, rubbing his ear though it didn't really hurt.

"Oh, poor baby." Craig rolled his eyes and dropped his hands down to the hem of Kenny's shirt, gripping the fabric again and lifting it up over Kenny's head. "You want sweet, you're looking in the wrong house."

"You were pretty sweet last night." Kenny said, trying to help Craig with his own shirt, but Craig seemed determined to take the lead on this.

"That wasn't sweet, that was..." Craig stopped, looking off to the wall of his room though Kenny was sure he wasn't actually seeing anything. "Okay, maybe sweet, but only because I can't think of another word for it."

Craig's shirt dropped from his hand to the floor and Kenny reached out to run his fingers along Craig's arm. He stepped closer and let his other hand rest at the back of Craig's neck and the taller boy looked at him with a sort of curious expression before Kenny gave him a small smile.

"I'm still intrigued by that punishment option." Kenny teased and Craig couldn't help but give a quiet sort of chuckle in return.

"I was fucking with you, Ken, I'm not into that kinky bullshit." Craig shook his head and Kenny put on a fake pout.

"That's unfortunate, I'm into almost anything."

"Gross." Craig flipped Kenny off, but the blonde leaned forward to press his lips to that offensive finger. "Also gross." Craig added, but he didn't look put off by the gesture.

"Get your finger out of my face and come here." Kenny growled playfully and began pulling Craig closer to him, using his hand at the base of Craig's neck to tilt the man's head back and start kissing and nipping at the skin available in front of him.

"When was the last time we did this?" Craig mumbled, closing his eyes and letting Kenny do what he seemed determined to do.

Kenny knew very well when the last time was, not counting his handsy gesture at the movie theater, but it didn't make it any easier to say.

"Was it really last time you were over?" Craig seemed to know as well, though whether his questions were rhetorical or actually posed towards Kenny to answer, the blonde wasn't sure. In any case, he kept silent. "Feels like it's been a long time."

"Miss me?" Kenny teased and Craig gave a humorless laugh, "Ha ha. Must be nice on that pedestal you bought yourself, huh?"

"The view's nice."

Craig pushed Kenny back again and cocked an eyebrow before Kenny shrugged and grinned.

"I meant you." He sighed dramatically and linked his arms around Craig's neck.

"Of course you did." Craig said with a grin and moved, dragging Kenny with him via the blonde hold on him. He rested his knee on the bed and lifted himself onto the mattress, going slow so Kenny could easily follow.

It was strange.

There was nothing overly intimate about how they moved over the bed, Kenny laying the reluctant Craig down and resting his weight over him. Kenny could tell Craig was a top, simply from the way he had acted the first time they'd come this close and the clear discomfort on his face now as he knew Kenny had the upper hand at the moment. Later on, this might become easier for Kenny to deal with, but right now he wasn't so sure he wanted to jump right into a submissive role because he knew that's when he'd start to lose control over himself. Being in control right now was all that kept Kenny's mind blank and his heart relatively calm. He could dictate how fast or slow this went and for now, he wanted to keep that.

Despite not being allowed to kiss Craig on the lips, Kenny was surprised at how close Craig was letting him get this time. The two lay there, in no particular hurry, just trading touches or kisses wherever they could get them and Kenny cautiously tested his luck. His hands were absently messing around in Craig's hair and the dark haired individual didn't seem to mind too much as his eyes were closed and he was busy mapping out Kenny's lower back with one hand and shoulders with the other. Kenny took the opportunity and leaned in, pressing his lips to the corner of Craig's mouth.

Craig twitched a little, moving his head to face away from Kenny but the blonde used his advantage with Craig's hair and gave a little tug on the strands to direct Craig back towards him. He purposefully gave another kiss to the other side, just short of actually kissing Craig and backed away to see what damage he may have done.

Craig had his eyes open now and was looking at Kenny curiously.

"Getting bold, are we?" Craig asked, but he didn't seem overly upset about it. Kenny just shrugged in return and smiled.

"You know me. I take risks like vitamins."

"Sure you do." Craig smirked and glanced down between them. "I've got to say, I'm not liking those pants."

Kenny frowned, looking down as well and saying, "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying, unless you plan on having more heart problems like last time, those pants should be a lot more on the floor and a lot less on you." Craig spoke slowly and deliberately, like speaking to a child, but when Kenny rose his gaze back to the dark haired boy to make some half formed joke he had to stop. Craig was still smirking at him and Kenny rolled his eyes, shaking his head and smiling again.

"I hope your floor appreciates them, I like these jeans." Kenny said, pushing himself up and untangling his fingers from Craig's hair to work on his jeans button instead, seeing Craig do the same with his own pants.

Two pairs of jeans joined the earlier discarded shirts on Craig's bedroom floor and Kenny settled himself back down over Craig with a comfortable sigh.

"No heart problems?" Craig asked.

"Not so far." Kenny answered.

"Good." Craig reached up and brushed a few stray strands of hair from Kenny's face, a move that was oddly romantic to Kenny but probably meant nothing special to Craig. "Because I have a condition to this. If we go through with it and it's looking more and more like that's going to be the case…"

"Hmm?" Kenny hummed, kissing Craig's collarbone absently while he waited for the moment he was fairly certain he would have to admit submission. He didn't mind either way, in normal circumstances. Today was a little different, but he'd let it get this far and would listen to what Craig had to say. Even if his heart may or may not have jumped a little in apprehension.

"I don't...uh..." Craig paused for a second, wondering how best to say this. It was easy to be blunt but it just didn't sound right. "I-...our positions are wrong for what I'm used to."

Kenny gave himself points for knowing what Craig had been about to say.

"You don't play bottom?" He clarified.

Craig shook his head.

"I'm not into being on the receiving end. You okay with that?"

"I like how you're actually asking me." Kenny laughed.

"Shut up, I'm just making sure." Craig stuck up his middle finger again but Kenny wrapped his fingers around Craig's wrist and brought it back down.

"I've done both before, I don't mind." Kenny admitted, though he made a great effort to avoid Craig's eye as he said it.

"Who have you let fuck you?" Craig asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No one you'd know." Kenny pushed himself back, laying himself on his side next to Craig and waiting for the boy to move.

"How long ago?" Craig propped himself up on an elbow, facing Kenny and still asking questions Kenny didn't really want to answer. But kind of potentially thought was cute because Craig looked a little jealous. If that emotion was even possible for Craig. Maybe Kenny was imagining things.

"I don't know, a couple of years back at least. I didn't really make a habit out of it, but it happened." Kenny shrugged.

Craig hummed an acknowledgement and shifted to bring Kenny closer, using his knees to push Kenny's legs apart and settle in between them, resting his weight down like Kenny had been doing earlier.

"You're the only one for me now, baby." Kenny teased, winking at Craig and gasping in mock offense when Craig just stared at him. "What, you don't like 'baby'?"

Craig buried his face in between Kenny's shoulder and neck, huffing in over done exasperation before saying something that came out muffled against Kenny's skin.

"You're so unbearably cheesy it's a wonder I haven't suffocated in it yet."

"Come on," Kenny teased. "You love the cheese."

Craig lifted his head, looking at Kenny with an expression Kenny couldn't quite figure out, but luckily Craig seemed to remember what they were doing and he didn't have to think much longer before Craig had begun kissing his shoulder.

Kenny closed his eyes, feeling Craig work his way up his neck. He nearly jumped in surprise when he felt Craig's lips at the corner of his own, much like he'd done earlier, but kept still in case his movement somehow cause Craig to stop. Kenny nearly laughed when he realized he was kind of treating Craig like one would a small and easily startled animal.

Moving his hands to Craig's waist, Kenny gently pushed upwards with his hips to test the waters. They started easy, with a surprising lack of urgency considering how it had been a while since they'd tried anything with each other. Kenny felt a slow pressure building and Craig moved above him casually. Despite Kenny trying to coax the movements it was Craig that was in control. Those kisses became more heated with time as they moved, Craig's breathing becoming more labored and Kenny barely able to get a breath in.

Kenny's mind was blissfully empty and he focused on keeping it that way by directing all his attention simply to what was happening and not the meaning behind it.

It wasn't hard as their motions became more heated and deliberate; Kenny was having a difficult enough time keeping his breath as they descended into the same intimacy as before. Kenny's body tingled at Craig's touch and Kenny was pleased to hear little moans from Craig when he pushed up to meet the man's hips or ran his fingertips down Craig's back. Kenny let out a noise of his own as Craig pressed against him and simultaneously bit down on Kenny's neck.

"I haven't...done this in a while." Craig breathed out, his breath heating Kenny's skin almost uncomfortably.

"Me neither." Kenny admitted, trying to tear some of his focus away to look around Craig's room. "Aah...do you have-?"

"Under the bed." Craig answered without waiting for Kenny to finish. The two awkwardly shifted so Kenny could shove a hand under Craig's bed without parting from each other and Kenny tried to judge the shape of what he was looking for. He wasn't so concerned about this when it involved oral, but sex was something a little different.

Luckily he found what he was looking for without too much difficulty and pulled out a small square package, inspecting it before handing it to Craig.

"You're a mind reader." Kenny said as Craig curled his fingers around the wrapper.

"No, just adept at reading the signs." Craig murmured, backing up reluctantly to dig his fingers under the band of Kenny's underwear.

Craig paused for a minute and Kenny grinned.

"This is the first time you'll see me totally naked. You excited?" Kenny teased playfully, linking his hands behind his head and receiving a withering look from Craig in return.

"Get over yourself." Craig replied with a small smirk and removed the remaining fabric covering Kenny. Contrary to what he'd just said, Craig did stare a little more than Kenny had expected him to. The man even fucking blushed a little. Though the red in his face could quite possibly have been because he was aroused, it wasn't hard to tell that either.

Kenny lifted himself up, sticking his thumb under Craig's waistband in return and the two worked to drop that with the other discarded articles of clothing as well. Now it was Kenny's turn to stare.

"Fuck, I need to go to your gym." Kenny said.

"You want to work out?" Craig lifted an eyebrow.

"No, I just want to see you all sweaty in gym clothes." Kenny confessed with a smirk, hastily pulling Craig back against him and hissing at the skin on skin contact he'd been so daunted by earlier.

The two play-fought for dominance, though they both knew Kenny would surrender. Kenny discovered that Craig actually liked having his hair played with during foreplay and in return, Craig found out that Kenny was a bit of a masochist. The bites that had proven to be effective in the past were even more so now and when Craig had unintentionally dug his nails into Kenny's back, the blonde had moaned.

"So you weren't lying when you said you were interested in punishment." Craig said with a chuckle and Kenny shrugged, wide grin in place over his lips.

"I guess not."

Kenny dropped a hand in between them and absently began tracing his fingers along the length of Craig's member. The darker haired man quickly forgot about talk of punishment and twitched at the contact.

"How about you put that on," Kenny wrapped his fingers around the hand Craig had clasped the package in. "-and we can get going, huh?"

"What, dragging out too long for you?" Craig inquired, trying to remain calm as Kenny teased him with his free hand.

"If you let this go on much longer, I might just snap and your 'I don't bottom' thing might be an issue." Kenny warned, though he was mostly teasing. He couldn't push Craig into doing anything; they both knew that. But that didn't stop Craig from pushing himself up and working to open the package.

"You got anything we can use to make that easier?" Kenny asked, pointing to Craig's dick without shame, though he got a curious look in return.

"Oh, uh...maybe under the bed too, I don't know." Craig shrugged and Kenny reluctantly moved to peer under the bed and look.

"How can you not have anything?" Kenny said, unable to locate a bottle or tube that might suggest a lubrication.

"I don't know, it's not like I invite people over to have sex all the time." Craig rolled his eyes, but Kenny couldn't see it.

"But don't you...you know, do it yourself?" Kenny asked, pushing himself back up to face Craig.

"If you remember correctly, I haven't had to do that myself for a while and you haven't complained so far." Craig stated and Kenny grinned.

"Ah, that's right." Kenny glanced down Craig's body and made a face. "I'm used to pain but not often down there. Um...well, let's try something."

Hesitantly, Kenny directed Craig back over him and locked his legs around Craig's hips. Craig watched patiently while Kenny got settled and jumped a little in surprise when the blonde gripped him and guided their movements until Craig was pushing at Kenny's backside.

"We can stop and find something else." Craig suggested half heartedly, but Kenny shook his head.

"Not done yet, don't move." Kenny warned. It wasn't the most ideal way to do this, but Kenny wasn't about to get himself hurt. Kenny stuck his fingers in his mouth and for a while after Kenny reached down, Craig's brain wouldn't work.

He knew Kenny was helping the situation, but it was tough to watch the blonde squirm under him, and be bound to not moving. He didn't want to rush Kenny, odd though it may have sounded to him that he actually seemed to care, but he was an impatient guy.

Eventually Kenny gave him the green light and he gradually started moving in. Kenny hissed, trying to breathe steadily and his fingers dug into Craig's hips with the effort of trying to guide the pace and depth. It had been a while since he'd done this and it hurt. Fucking hell, it hurt. Kenny reminded himself of his bruised cheek a while back and how much that had hurt and kept mentally reassuring himself he'd be okay. It was all okay. And this would have much better pay off than a punch to the cheek.

It was an incredible feeling. A painful one as well, but incredible all the same.

Craig kept still within Kenny, breathing uneasily through his nose and biting down on his bottom lip. He bowed his head to Kenny's shoulder and closed his eyes, hoping Kenny couldn't hear the beating of his heart that was all too loud to the dark haired man the heart belonged to. It was deafening in his ears and Craig wasn't entirely sure it was just because of the sex. He wasn't exactly sure of much at the moment, but whatever was causing his heart to pound made kissing Kenny seem like a good idea so he pressed his lips to Kenny's shoulder and neck while the blonde adjusted to the intrusion down below.

Kenny wasn't sure he wanted to move, even with the benefits that awaited him. It stung and even breathing was causing minor shifts and Kenny tried to calculate how much pain it would take before he would start feeling good. His chest was aching, but it was tolerable this time because it wasn't the only thing he could focus on. Craig was kissing his shoulder and Kenny smiled slightly at the affection. He could do this, it was just a matter of time.

"Move." Kenny breathed and Craig obeyed cautiously.

**00000**

It took time to recover after what Kenny was sure he could put near the top of his list in terms of good sex, but eventually they managed to untangle themselves on the bed and lazily begin to get dressed again. Kenny winced as he shifted and had to lean a little to avoid putting too much pressure right on his rear just yet. It had definitely been worth the pain, but now that his senses weren't overflowing with something to distract him, an ache had worked itself up within him instead.

"That's my shirt." Kenny said as Craig held up one of their shirts from the floor. Craig tossed it over and grabbed a fresh one for himself out of his drawers.

"Congrats." Craig said and Kenny frowned, looking over at him curiously.

"For what?"

"For going through with it." Craig teased, stepping back over to the blonde and sitting down next to him on the bed. "No heart trouble, I don't have to call an ambulance?"

"Shut it, you jerk." Kenny laughed, shoving Craig over on the bed and slipping into his shirt while Craig recovered. "Augh, it fucking hurts now, though."

"Your hear- oh." Craig caught sight of Kenny gingerly standing up and resting a hand against the small of his back for something akin to support and the dark haired man grinned almost wickedly. "Guess we should be better prepared before we try that again, huh?"

"You think? Let's just go play video games or something to distract me." Kenny complained, reaching out with his spare hand and Craig took it, helping Kenny down the stairs while the blonde played up being hurt to a theatrical degree.

"What do you want to play?" Craig asked, letting Kenny find a comfy place on the couch while he set up the system in the living room.

"Don't know, don't care." Kenny threw his hands up carelessly.

Craig set up a multi player shooter and tossed a controller over to Kenny, who barely caught it, before sitting down next to him. Kenny deliberately lifted his legs and entwined them with Craig's, looking at Craig as if daring him to say something about it.

"If one of us gets up and trips over this mess, I blame you entirely." Was all Craig said before navigating the menu like a pro and setting up a level for them to play.

It took Kenny forever to figure out the controls, much to Craig's amusement, but eventually he got the hang of it. There was a much needed comfort in the air around them as they played, shoving each other to try and make the player mess up and once succeeding in Kenny's character herding Craig's character off a cliff in some morbid dance of murder.

"I win!" Kenny called, making his character do a series of running and jumping commands that sort of looked like a victory dance.

"You are an animal, how could you do that?" Craig exaggerated deliberately, waiting for his character to respawn. "I'm on your team."

"I'm sorry. Only one could survive and the sexiest won." Kenny said seriously, glancing over at Craig and nearly cracking up at the look Craig was giving him.

"Uh huh. Just for that, we're enemies now." Craig's character showed up on the screen again and he quickly maneuvered it to hide while Kenny tried to find him.

Despite their attempts to kill each other, they managed to win the game, though Kenny quickly loosed a Molotov in their safe room which would have killed them had the game not automatically rolled winning credits.

"Woo!" Kenny pumped his hands in the air, waving the controller in some odd victory dance Craig felt the need to cringe away from just in case someone got hurt. "Fucking winner!"

"Good job, team killer." Craig chuckled at Kenny's antics, trying to get the blonde to lower his arms.

"I think I deserve a prize." Kenny said enthusiastically, leaning towards Craig. "Don't you?"

"You killed me a bunch of times in _one_ round and you want a prize?" Craig asked incredulously. "You must be high."

"Nope. Prize time. We won, don't be such a poor sport just 'cos I lit you on fire and stuff." Kenny smiled sweetly.

"Ugh, you're a terrible person." Craig shook his head, but he couldn't quite keep the hint of a smile off his face. "Here."

Kenny was fairly certain his heart stopped because after hearing that one word and seeing Craig lean forward, he felt something warm cover his mouth. It only lasted a brief moment but both of them instantly recoiled from each other, frozen in place on the couch while a fact slowly processed in their minds. Kenny couldn't breathe. That had been a kiss. A real kiss. A kiss on the lips. Craig had kissed him.

"You-..." Kenny tried to say something but his voice got stuck and wouldn't come out.

"Sorry, I-" Craig paused, unsure really of what to say. Sorry? That didn't sound right, he knew Kenny had wanted that. "Um."

"I thought we weren't doing that." Kenny murmured, trying not to make a big deal about this, but unable to wrap his brain around it. He'd wanted this for how long now?

"Yeah." Craig replied. "We weren't."

"Does this mean-...uh..." Kenny glanced over at Craig and knew he was digging himself into a hole but it kept coming up like his voice was ignoring his commands to just shut up. "Like you only kiss people you date, so-..."

"Whoa, I wasn't asking you out, it was just a kiss." Craig held up a hand as if to dismiss Kenny's ramblings.

"But you said you only kiss those you date." Kenny pushed.

"I-...look, I made a mistake."

"A mistake?" Kenny's eyes widened and he shifted back from Craig. "Hey, I'm not upset or anything, I just didn't think that you'd want to do that."

"And clearly I shouldn't have, you're making a big deal about it." Craig retorted.

"I'm not making a big deal about it." Kenny protested but he was calling bullshit on himself.

"You are." Craig stated, detaching himself from Kenny on the couch. "Can we just forget I did that?"

"It's going to be awkward either way, you know that." Kenny sighed. He'd wanted this, but he hadn't expected it to be this daunting. A simple kiss was causing enough panic in both of them to make a stranger think they'd just found a bomb. And in some ways, maybe they'd be kind of right.

"Fuck." Craig cursed, leaning back on the couch. "And that's exactly why I don't kiss people I'm not dating."

Kenny had always fancied himself a fighter but in the face of love, he was definitely more willing to pick flight. He tried to think of another way to end this, but his heart was already thumping unpleasantly in his chest and he was still having trouble breathing.

"I-...I think I'm gonna go home then." Kenny reluctantly stood up, pausing by the couch in case Craig wanted to stop him, but the taller boy didn't move.

"Really?" Craig asked as Kenny moved to the front door.

"Well...it's gonna be uncomfortable sitting here pretending that didn't happen." Kenny reasoned. "And unless you want to go official and start dating," Craig groaned unhappily and Kenny took that as a sign. "Um...text me, okay?"

Craig nodded from the couch and Kenny stepped into his shoes. The door swung shut as he left and Kenny paused on the door step, almost unable to move as he debated going back in. It had just been a kiss...but it had been _the_ kiss. The one Kenny had been waiting for and Craig had clearly been unprepared for. Going back in now would only give Kenny an anxiety attack and potentially turn Craig back into that walled off, stoic individual in his attempt to ignore what he'd done.

Why was this so complicated? They weren't teenage girls in fucking high school. But Kenny was in his car and driving home by the time the shock had worn off and it would do him no good to go back now. He glanced at his phone and knew immediately that he'd be obsessed with checking it until Craig sent him a text.

_Please let that be soon_, Kenny thought, _I'll wear the battery out checking it all the time_.


	13. Chapter 12 The Short Chapter

Kenny hadn't expected a text right away but this was ridiculous. It was only common courtesy to give a day or two to sort ones head before approaching the problem with a clearer head, but this _was _Craig Tucker and he wasn't exactly normal. The first day with no text had been okay. Kenny had accepted it and avoided looking at his phone. He'd gone so far as to ask Kyle to lend him a book so he could distract himself in something and had finished a full damn novel. The second day had been tougher. He'd caved in and told Kyle what had happened in order to just...talk about it. Deal with it in his own way while he waited for Craig.

The third day rolled around and Kenny had taken to moping on the couch in the living room while Kyle and Stan milled about in the kitchen. Kenny hated how he was acting, but he couldn't deny the fact that he hated Stan a little bit right now. Him and his perfect relationship and how he'd never had this problem. Kyle dealt with his problems and sometimes attacked them a little too head on, resulting in a lot of headaches when he had been younger from overwhelming himself. When Stan had asked Kyle out, it had taken an hour of talking and reasoning before the red head had said yes.

Kenny knew he hadn't exactly asked Craig out, but therein lay the problem. He _hadn't_ sprung some romantic proposition on Craig, really, so what was taking him so long?

"Ugh, what the fuck, man." Kenny whined, sinking further down on the couch miserably.

"Kenny, calm down." Kyle reprimanded, not even glancing over his shoulder to see the blonde because he knew exactly how he'd be acting. Years of being friends and especially now as room mates had given Kyle a very accurate picture of Kenny's moods.

"Seriously though. Is kissing me such a huge deal? Am I that bad?" Kenny didn't even really care if anyone answered him, but he felt the need to bitch and moan about it anyway.

"I'm sure it's not that." Kyle said and Stan rounded the counter to settle on the couch next to Kenny.

"You know Craig, Kenny. He's probably just being an ass and got preoccupied. I doubt he's sitting around thinking of ways to make you out like a bad guy." Stan reasoned and Kenny hated that his words actually made sense. That _would_ be just like Craig. Get distracted and forget he had something to attend to.

"He might not just sit around thinking about this, but I am. How fucking rude to get distracted and leave someone hanging on you." Kenny mumbled.

"Text him, maybe?" Stan suggested.

"...I feel like that's a bad move." Kenny was making excuses to sulk and he knew it but it felt all too desperate and awkward to be the first one to text. For his own pride, he needed Craig to do the honors of first contact.

"Want a distraction?" Stan asked.

Kenny looked up at Stan and the dark haired boy smiled kindly at him in return. Kenny didn't often ask Stan for help with his problems because Stan was all too prone to avoiding making any final decisions. Having the authoritative Wendy as a girlfriend for all too many years had done a lot of damage to his ability to lead and be direct. And now, Kenny liked to point out, Stan had asked out another authoritative figure who probably wasn't helping much either.

But...maybe his distraction thing wasn't such a bad idea right now. Kenny knew eventually Kyle would get sick of his moping and do something himself to change the mood and he was getting sick of himself already, to be honest.

"Sure." Kenny answered.

Stan set about preparing a video game and handed Kenny a controller. It was a poor reminder of how much fun it had been playing team killers with Craig, but at the same time, Kenny could easily throw himself into a game and Stan was a pretty good shot with most weapons so they made a good team whenever they played.

**000000**

The text didn't come for another hour, but when it did, Kenny jumped in surprise and nearly dropped his controller. Days of being on edge and having no desire to use his phone had made his ringtone all the more startling.

_Craig, sent at 1:43pm:_

Hey.

Kenny nearly rolled his eyes at how simple the text was, but at least it was something. He was having a little trouble breathing, his chest aching with the anticipation of what Craig was going to say after two full days.

He let his character go idle and Stan continued to play with the game bots, knowing Kenny probably needed less attention on himself now that his wait was over.

_Kenny, sent at 1:44pm:_

Hey. How're you?

_Craig, sent at 1:45pm:_

Fine. You?

_Kenny, sent at 1:45pm:_

Little frustrated.

No point in lying. Kenny wasn't about to spell out some sob story about how it had been two fucking days of worry, but he wanted Craig to know he'd been waiting.

_Craig, sent at 1:46pm_:

Because of me?

_Kenny, sent at 1:46pm:_

Yes.

_Craig, sent at 1:46pm:_

Sorry.

Kenny raised his eyebrows. He hadn't expected an apology but this was nice. He couldn't help but want to say 'No problem', the romantic in him wanting to convey that he was only frustrated because he cared about the idiot, but Kenny still hadn't confessed that much to Craig himself so it was probably not going to help the situation.

It was difficult finding out how to respond. Kenny wasn't sure if he should be direct and simply ask about what had happened and how they were going to proceed now that they had kissed properly or if he should pretend that was the last thing on his mind and try and engage Craig in casual conversation about his day. Luckily, he didn't have to make the decision.

_Craig, sent at 1:48pm:_

So we kind of freaked out when you were over, huh?

_Kenny, sent at 1:48pm:_

A little. I'd say you more than me.

_Craig, sent at 1:48pm:_

Don't start shit, you started running your mouth and made it worse. That's not what I want to talk about though.

Kenny waited for a follow up text, not wanting to retort to that comment and make things worse. Stan had paused the game and moved into the kitchen to steal snacks from Kyle's plate, much to the red head's annoyance. Kenny had noticed, living with Kyle, that the boy snacked a lot. He wasn't a huge meal eater, but he had snack food in nearly every cupboard or compartment in the fridge.

A little tune alerted him to the new message on his phone and Kenny turned his attention back to his phone.

_Craig, sent at 1:50pm:_

We need to talk. Like, not on phones. I'd say forget about what I did, but neither one of us would do that. I think I want to end this deal we have. I've got an explanation why, but it's too much to text so don't ask. When are you free?

A painful lump had formed in Kenny's throat and he tried to breathe evenly. End the deal? What did that mean? Stop seeing each other? His fingers hovered over the keypad, wanting nothing more than to force the explanation out of Craig but knowing that might just piss the guy off. Instead, he reluctantly wrote out a response, hoping he wouldn't get sick from worrying about this.

_Kenny, sent at 1:52pm:_

Any time. I don't work for the next three days.

_Craig, sent at 1:52pm:_

Tomorrow okay? I work the late shift tonight.

_Kenny, sent at 1:53pm:_

Okay.

_Craig, sent at 1:53pm:_

Come here, it'll be easier for me. Around noon work?

What followed was a picture of Google maps, obviously taken from a computer screen with Craig's phone camera, but it detailed the location of a fitness center. Kenny had never stepped foot inside a fitness center in his life, unless you counted the wave pool area below a small work out center when him and his friends had gone to a leisure center for a birthday party.

_Craig, sent at 1:54pm:_

I guess you'll get to see my gym, huh? Lol.

Kenny remembered his comment about wanting to see Craig in his gym clothes and blushed a little, looking up to make sure Kyle and Stan were still busy in the kitchen. He wasn't sure if Craig was actually being funny or if the fitness center was actually the better place to have this conversation, but Kenny willed himself not to conjure up pictures of Craig working out for his own sanity's sake.

_Kenny, sent at 1:56pm:_

It works and lol, yeah. Dress sensibly, I can't talk to you if you're all sexy and shit.

It was a poor attempt at being funny, but Kenny was also hoping Craig took him seriously because it was the truth.

_Craig, sent at 1:56pm_:

I'll try and tone down the sexy.

Goddamn this boy. Kenny couldn't stop a grin from working its way across his lips, relishing in the small bits of humor that were peeking through what was a rather unpleasant conversation as a whole. No further text came from Craig and Kenny didn't really want to respond and risk dragging the conversation on when the real topic had already been dealt with. It just felt awkward to him to do so.

"Happy now?" Kyle called from the kitchen, catching Kenny putting his phone down and correctly assuming they were finished talking.

"Sort of. Might not be after tomorrow, but he was kinda funny so maybe it's okay." Kenny shrugged.

"Aww, if you get dumped, we'll cheer you up." Stan offered and Kenny managed a short laugh.

"You're sooooo good at that." Kenny exaggerated playfully, forcing his mood back up by reasoning that if Craig had been angry with him, he wouldn't have been joking about the gym stuff.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad...

**00000**

**Author's Note:**

_So I'm late again. I apologize. I was out of town for Christmas and am planning a move at the moment, so things are a little out of whack for a bit. This is a short chapter so I'm going to include a little bonus here for you guys. More chapters coming up, I swear!_

**00000**

It had been in the works for a while. Lots of planning and subtly gathering information, lots of lying about location and sneaking off when he thought she wasn't looking but finally everything was in place.

Wendy had gone out to celebrate a friend's promotion with some cake and had given Eric all the time he'd needed to set up the preparations. He'd never fancied himself an overly romantic fellow, but some women did strange things to the men around them. It had been a tough decision, whether to go overboard or casual, but women liked a big show, right?

Eric had set up the house with paper arrows, directing anyone who walked in the front door back into the guest bedroom where Eric had set up a small meal. He couldn't cook if his life depended on it, so he'd ordered in pizza. Not the most romantic, but he thought he'd more than made up for it so she could deal with the pizza. It had been an absolute bitch trying to get Wendy to talk about what kind of jewelry she liked without tipping her off, but Wendy had always been a classy girl. Through his super sneaky interrogations and a long conversation that nearly turned into an argument with the clerk at the jewelry store, Eric had found the perfect token to represent this moment.

He'd never seen himself at this point before a few months ago. To be honest, it had nothing to do with the baby on the way and he felt justified in saying that because it meant that he actually cared. Which, in his mind, he needed to prove a lot. Not to say he was a bad boyfriend but when he said he was in love, no one believed him. So take that, non believers, he was committed.

It took about twenty minutes of rolling the small box around in his hands before Eric heard the door unlock and rushed into position. He knelt down by the box he'd set up as a table for the food and held the velvety jewelry box behind his back. He desperately wanted to clear his throat, but Wendy was mumbling to herself in the foyer and he didn't want to give himself away just yet.

"Eric?" Wendy called, but he didn't answer. "What the-?"

It seemed she had seen the arrows because the sound of paper and tape peeling from the wall told Eric everything he needed to know.

"Eric, why are you taping things to the walls?" Wendy asked and again, Eric didn't answer.

Peeling each piece of paper off the wall as she went, Wendy made her way into the guest room and jumped, startled by Eric's appearance on the floor. She pressed a hand to her chest and laughed softly.

"You scared me. What are you doing on the floor? Is that pizza?"

Eric grinned and nodded, slowly fiddling with the box behind his back to gather her attention with his slight shifting.

"What are you do-...Eric?" Wendy's eyes widened and Eric knew she'd probably figured it out. He pulled the box in front of him and lifted it open to show off a slim golden band with a glittery gem sealed into the top of it.

"Oh my god." Wendy backed up a step, an involuntary grin crossing her lips.

"I'm pretty shit at romance." Eric began, knowing that sweet and sensitive wasn't going to represent them at any moment in time, not even now. "But I think I'm pretty good when it comes to you, Wendy. Will you continue to make me a better person and marry me already?"

Wendy laughed nervously, feeling a sting at the back of her eyes where tears were threatening to well up. Pregnancy hormones were not helping her fragile state of emotion and Eric was on his fucking knee and oh god.

"You're so shit at proposals but yes." Wendy choked out, trying to will herself _not_ to cry as Eric beamed happily and stood up to cross the room towards her.

Wendy's hand shook when Eric took it and there was a slight struggle to get the ring on her finger because of it, but eventually it fit comfortably around the digit and Eric was pulling his now fiancé into a hug.

"Fucking hell, you actually set this up on your own?" Wendy asked, clutching tightly onto Eric's shirt.

"I have my moments." Eric teased and Wendy giggled.

"You sure do. I love you." Wendy pulled back to give Eric a kiss.

"I love you too."

**00000**

"What the fuck?!" Kyle looked at his phone incredulously and burst out laughing.

"What, what happened?" Kenny looked up from the TV and Stan peeked his head around where he was washing his hands in the bathroom.

"Cartman...Cartman fucking proposed." Kyle was still laughing but he managed to get out those words that pretty much stunned the room.

"What?" Stan asked, raising an eyebrow. "He did?"

"What did Wendy say?" Kenny inquired, trying to peer over Kyle's shoulder to see the text message Cartman had sent.

"She said yes." Kyle said and Kenny gave a low whistle.

"Good for him." Kenny couldn't help but laugh as well, just stunned by how well the fat ass was doing above everyone else. Engaged with a kid on the way. Wow. "How do you feel, Stan?" Kenny let curiosity get the better of him, knowing Wendy had been Stan's ex.

"Fine, why?" Stan shrugged, exiting the bathroom and flicking the light off. He pointedly made his way over to where Kyle sat and looped an arm around the red head, pressing a kiss to Kyle's cheek.

"You got something better than her anyways." Kenny said, winking at Kyle who merely rolled his eyes.

"Thanks, Kenny, you're such a pal." Kyle teased with a grin.

"I love you, buddy!" Kenny called childishly and Kyle just shook his head and laughed.


	14. Chapter 13

The front doors to the fitness center were fairly intimidating. Two large glass doors with the word Pull written on them. Everyone Kenny had seen go into the building had struggled with the doors which meant they were heavy. A few overly muscled men who came out about ten minutes after Kenny had arrived were the only people who had found it easy...but that wasn't exactly a surprise. Kenny kept expecting their arms to just burst at the seams.

It took a good twenty minutes before Kenny summoned up the courage to go inside, following Craig's text to go to a specific set of equipment. Kenny hadn't understood the term Craig had used; he wasn't familiar with work out equipment, so Craig had simply clarified with "The set with the arm pads you pull forward".

There were a lot of people here Kenny immediately felt envious of, all fit and in shape with fucking abs and the whole nine yards. It made him feel out of shape, though he wasn't that bad. He had abs...sort of...he wasn't chubby at least. Kenny felt over dressed in his jeans and T-shirt, seeing everyone with some variation of shorts on, but he ignored them and pressed onwards to where he saw something like the machine Craig had mentioned.

Sure enough, Craig came into view and Kenny nearly stumbled over his own feet. Fuck. Craig was in shorts as well and a plain black shirt, sitting and looking rather comfortable while pulling two colored pads connected to the equipment weights in front of himself. Every now and then his arms would shake a bit and Craig would glare at the pads, causing Kenny to smile a little, but he couldn't just sit here watching Craig forever.

Even though he kind of wished he could.

"Hey, dude." Kenny called, thanking whatever gods that might have been that his voice didn't crack under the tension he felt.

Craig glanced over and Kenny knew he'd been seen, but Craig pretended not to notice him for a few more pulls on the machine before he relaxed and dropped his arms to his sides.

"Hey." He said disinterestedly and Kenny wondered if Craig was purposely trying to play it cool or if he was really just being an ass.

"Kind of a weird place to have a conversation." Kenny remarked, stuffing his hands into his pockets awkwardly and stepping closer to the dark haired boy.

"I like it here. No one bothers me." Craig muttered.

"Oh." Kenny said lamely, unsure of how best to start this. He'd never needed to have a serious conversation about relationships, not since his first girlfriend and he had talked about purity rings and had subsequently broken up after an unfortunate incident and a shitty concert.

"Plus it's just easier. I can't do that 'talk over coffee' bullshit, I'm not a fucking soap opera." Craig added, almost reluctantly, but Kenny was thankful for it because it gave him a little bit more information on why the hell he was here.

"Whatever you say." Kenny nodded, kneeling down next to the machine uncomfortably, wanting to be closer to Craig's level as he remained seated on the bench. "So...it's a nice gym."

Kenny was kicking himself for not being smoother, but Craig didn't seem to mind the idle chatter.

"Yeah. It's not oppressive like some. I mean, there's some douchebags who don't need to be here, but they leave the others alone so you don't have to get into a competition." Craig brushed a hand through his hair and eyed the people working out on the equipment around them.

"Where should we start?" Kenny asked, looking up at Craig as if hoping the boy would have some game plan of how this conversation would go.

"I...I don't know." Craig shrugged. "I'm betting you're a little confused with me right now."

"You'd be betting right." Kenny nodded.

"Well...first off, I guess, do you want to...I don't know, do you have any particular questions?" Craig seemed just as lost as Kenny did in the conversation and that made Kenny feel a little better.

"Why did you kiss me?" Kenny said, a little emphasis on it as if it were the most obvious question in the world. "That'd be a good place to start."

Craig kept quiet for a bit, avoiding Kenny's gaze and purposefully trying to find something else in the room to look at.

"It's complicated."

"Isn't it always?" Kenny raised an eyebrow.

"Seems like." Craig mused. He sucked in his lower lip and bit at it gently for a moment before continuing on. "It wasn't like it wasn't going to happen eventually, just so you know. I just didn't want it to happen then. I fucked up."

"I didn't think it was that bad." Kenny mumbled, knowing Craig wasn't really listening to him right now.

"I was gonna talk to you about it eventually. About how serious this was getting. But then we...you know, had sex and got all fucking cozy and it slipped. I'd say forget about it, but that won't make it go away." Craig's voice was low, but he was speaking fast, as if afraid he'd not be able to get it all out in time.

"So what does that mean now?" Kenny prompted.

Craig turned on the bench to look at Kenny with a serious expression, his dark eyes steady though his hands were clasped tightly out of what Kenny assumed to be anxiety.

"You know this is getting serious. This isn't just some fuck buddy deal anymore so I need to know. You wanted me to kiss you." That wasn't a question. "What do you feel for me now?"

That was a loaded question and Kenny paused before trying to come up with an answer.

It was complicated. That word was coming up a lot recently. Kenny thought he was in love with Craig, but who knew how long that would last. Kenny was notorious for getting bored with his partners, that's part of why he preferred being single and just fooling around. No commitment, no strings, no obligations. But despite knowing it might not last long, right in this moment Kenny didn't want to see Craig walk out that door and never come back. He wanted to have Craig all to himself, as selfish as that sounded.

Kenny opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to work up the proper thing to say, before he actually spoke.

"I like you." He started. "Like a lot. It's hard to explain because I don't know if this is like...long term feelings or not. I just...want you. And not just in a sex kind of way."

"I can't imagine why." Craig muttered.

"Me neither." Kenny risked a short laugh. "You're an asshole and you're so obscenely different from everyone else I know. But I'm not attracted to anyone else I know, I'm attracted to you. Maybe I like assholes."

Craig made a strange noise that made Kenny think he might be choking, but when he glanced up, it looked like Craig was laughing.

"What?" He asked.

"Sorry, just...you're confessing to a guy and you said you like assholes. It's...just gay all around." Craig tried to stop himself from laughing again and Kenny had to crack a small smile.

"Oh, ha ha. You're very funny." Kenny rolled his eyes but he was glad Craig had found humor in the situation; it made him feel better.

"I know I am." Craig said, but he fell silent after the words left his mouth.

Kenny knew he probably shouldn't ask but he couldn't help it.

"And you? What do you think about me?"

Craig looked Kenny over for a bit, avoiding eye contact but definitely looking in his direction.

"I don't know." Craig shrugged. "I mean...part of me thinks this was a really bad idea and that we should just forget about it. But another part of me actually likes your company and...I can't believe I'm saying this...might actually like you. If I'd known you were a cool guy, I would never have agreed to your deal. I thought you'd be an ass and just good sex or something, but you're really fucking nice."

Craig idly ran both his hands through his hair again, dropping his gaze to the floor with a heavy sigh.

"I don't do nice guys, it's not me." He said, his voice sounding a little strained.

"You're not such a bad guy yourself, you know." Kenny pointed out. "You're actually really fun. I never thought you had that side."

"No one ever thinks I'm fun, that's part of my charm." Craig muttered, the sentence sounding like a joke but his voice was dull.

"Charm, huh? So...we've established we kinda maybe like each other a bit...what does that mean now?" Kenny asked, fiddling with the hem of his jeans. The backs of them were torn a bit, being just a little too long for him and having been dragged over the concrete sidewalks for years. His mother had once told him to hem them up but he liked them longer. Hemming only meant when he grew, the jeans would shrink up his legs and that was a really bad look for him.

"What do you want it to mean?" Craig inquired back.

"Well...let's like...make a couple of plans and pick which one works best for us." Kenny suggested. "Like we've got the obvious ones. Stop seeing each other and forget this happened."

"Always start with the most negative option, you do." Craig shook his head and a faint smirk crossed his lips.

"Get together and be a couple." Kenny counted the options out on his fingers. "What else is there?"

"Cut off emotion from this game and go back to just hanging out for sex?" Craig said, but he didn't look too interested in his own idea. Kenny added a third finger to his counts just for good measure.

"I can't think of anything else." Kenny admitted.

"It's kind of a cut and dry situation, there's not many options." Craig agreed.

Both of them fell silent, Kenny holding his fingers up still and eying them as if they would somehow have the answer he was looking for. He didn't want to stop seeing Craig, but he didn't know if it was possible for him to be a boyfriend. He'd sucked at it so far and it was a status change a lot of others would have a hard time grasping. Not so much for Kenny, as Kyle and Stan would understand, but Craig wasn't really known for his loving demeanor.

"Wanna go out for a smoke?" Craig finally suggested and Kenny nearly sighed with relief.

"Hell yes."

Craig grabbed a water bottle he must have brought with him that had been hidden on the other side of the machine and stood up, offering a hand to Kenny to help him up off the floor. No one stopped them or even looked their way as they exited the gym and Craig pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his shorts pocket.

"Came prepared?" Kenny asked, finding it strange to work out with something unhealthy in your clothing.

"Figured we'd need it so I didn't want to run back to my locker." Craig answered, sticking a cigarette between his lips and running his thumb over the lighter to start a flame.

"Ah, true. Good thinking." Kenny nodded, taking the offered stick and letting Craig light it for him again.

It was a nice, blissful couple minutes of silence between them as they smoked, leaning against the building safely out of range from the front doors. Smoke billowed out in front of them and mingled together in the air before dissipating. Kenny was content to just stand in silence until they had finished, but as the heat crept up the cigarettes to maybe the halfway point, Craig spoke.

"What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Not much. I have a few days off work remember?" Kenny said.

"Yeah. Just wanted to ask since I don't know if you've got plans with Kyle or something." Craig muttered.

"Did you want to hang out?"

"I was thinking about it. It's kind of a big decision to make today, you know? Stop seeing each other or be...boyfriends." Craig seemed repulsed by the word. "Was thinking maybe we take the night to like...plan out the pros and cons or something so we know we're making the right choice."

"You really like to think things through, don't you?" Kenny almost laughed.

"It's part of the reason I rarely got involved with your stupid plots as a kid. I actually took the time to think about the consequences of my actions." Craig said.

"Ha...well my childhood was interesting, shut up." Kenny didn't really feel and anger towards what Craig was saying; the damn idiot was right. "But I agree. I don't want to fuck up and make the wrong decision too quick. I like you too much to fuck up."

Craig chuckled softly.

"It's shit like that that makes you sound so gay. You 'like me too much'." Craig shook his head slowly, dropping his nearly finished cigarette to the pavement and squishing it beneath the toe of his sneaker.

"S'true." Kenny shrugged, taking a long drag on the cigarette to work the stick down.

"But yeah. I think that's a good idea." Craig added, not really knowing what else to say. "Anything else we should talk about while we're at it? Get everything out at once?"

Kenny thought for a moment and hissed through his teeth, knowing Craig wouldn't be happy with the things he was thinking of.

"I kinda have questions, but they're sappy."

"Oh?"

"Right now, without thinking about it, do you like me? Like spur of the moment, what would you say you feel when we hang out?" Kenny dared to ask.

Craig deliberately stared down at the broken and ashy cigarette on the ground for a few beats before answering.

"Without thinking, I like hanging out with you. You're fun and...god, this is so gay...full of energy. None of my other friends are like you." Craig replied. "I hate seeing you get bullied by your parents and think you need to just fucking leave them alone so I don't have to want to punch them all the time."

"You want to punch my parents?" Kenny asked with a laugh. He couldn't resist the smile that crossed his lips at the thought of Craig being all protective and angry on his behalf.

"Right in their fucking faces." Craig nodded. "Fucking bugging you at work, bringing that shit into the public, what were they thinking?"

"You're pretty cute when you get all worked up, you know that?" Kenny teased lightly and Craig flipped him off without hesitation.

"It's just...you have that spark I don't see in a lot of people but you let them walk all over you. I can see why Kyle wants you to move in, he probably doesn't like seeing you be a little bitch for them any more than I do." Craig continued, kicking a small pebble that was near his foot off into the parking lot.

"I'm not a bitch." Kenny protested.

"You should have left that house years ago, you don't owe them shit." Craig stated. "The fact that you stayed there to play savior when it makes no difference makes you a little bitch."

Kenny hated that he didn't have a retort for that. Instead he changed the subject.

"That's a lot of conversation about my parents when I asked you what you felt when you hang out with _me_."

"Fine, I'll stick to you then." Craig huffed. "I like hanging out with you." He repeated. "The reason I brought up your parents is because I feel lately like I'm needing to protect you when you are strong enough to take care of yourself. And I'm gonna stop talking now because this is a lot of talking about the same shit."

Kenny laughed.

"I like you talking, I think this is the most I've heard you say in one go." Kenny teased.

"Shut up." Craig snapped, but there wasn't much anger in it, more-so a tired weight. "Anything else?"

"Do you think we _could_ be a couple? Like, no decision making, but just the idea. Do you think it's even possible for us to settle down and be compatible that way?" Kenny asked, digging from the list of questions he had come up with over the time they'd spent together.

Craig shrugged.

"I don't know. It could be really fun or it could be disastrous. I guess it depends on how serious you'd want to be."

"What do you mean?" Kenny inquired.

"Well, like if we're just in a casual relationship, it might work. I can do that, but if it's super serious and we move in together or plan a house together or give each other cheesy little promise rings or some shit, I don't think I can settle into that." Craig explained.

"Good, cos I refuse gifts of rings." Kenny grinned with a sharp nod. "I agree with you there. Casual is our style."

Kenny let his cigarette drop to the ground, crushing it as Craig had done with his shoe. It had burned all the way down to the filter and had nearly started burning Kenny's fingers. The two spent a moment in silence again, Kenny taking the time to notice the breeze that had picked up and was shaking the leaves in the trees outlining the parking lot. He could feel it playing havoc with his hair and glanced over to see it doing the same to Craig, despite the wind not being that strong.

"I guess we just have to think it over." Kenny mused aloud, trying absently to catch Craig's attention so the boy would look at him with that sexy wind swept hair.

"Yeah." Craig nodded. "Where should we meet to talk about it tomorrow? I don't wanna do it over text."

"You could come over," Kenny suggested. "I think Kyle's working tomorrow."

"Okay. What number's his place again? I'll ring the bell or whatever's there so you can let me in."

"Three fifteen. The key pad is weird though, every apartment has an extra zero at the front so look for zero three fifteen." Kenny said.

"Okay." Craig repeated, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I guess we should go, unless there's something else to talk about?"

"Short visit." Kenny remarked, though he honestly didn't really want to go back into the gym right now.

"Yeah, but it's...better, I guess, to do these talks in person. Might have taken less time over text, but I don't trust it." Craig said.

Kenny had to give him that one. Serious conversations could be misleading over text without hearing the tone behind a person's voice and sometimes the phone would fail to send messages and it got chaotic really fast. Kyle's first cell phone had done that a lot and there had been a lot of trial and error messages trying to get in contact with him.

"Sounds good. Tomorrow?" Kenny said, pushing off from the wall and turning to face Craig.

"Tomorrow." Craig nodded.

"Anytime in particular?"

"Say...two ish?" Craig suggested. "I have to help mom set up a new television dad bought in the morning and she fucking wastes time like a pro."

"I'll be ready for two." Kenny said with a smile. Now just to go home and calmly think about what he wanted to do. And mentally prepare himself for rejection...just in case. Good lord, was dating always this hard?

**0000**

**Author's Note:**

Sorry guys, was pretty sick the last couple of weeks, didn't get anything done. Recovering now though, so here's a new chapter for you lovely people~


	15. Chapter 14

Kyle left for work around eleven so Kenny had the house to himself for hours before he needed to expect Craig. He made a lazy brunch of scrambled eggs and fried bologna, having no bacon in the apartment to make instead. Not much was on the television, so Kenny took to trying on clothes to see what made him feel most confident while he ate. He eventually settled on a casual pair of grey sweatpants and a black T-shirt with an old NES controller on it.

The buzzer came at about two fourteen and scared the hell out of Kenny while he sat on the couch watching some zombie movie that had far too much screaming in it. He clapped a hand to his chest to calm his heart down and moved over to the phone where he tapped the button Kyle had shown him to open the main doors for Craig. His heart was beating way too fast, worried about what Craig might have chosen to do, but he managed to calm it down by repeating his mantra he'd designed last night.

_You're tough. You can handle rejection, it's fine. _It wasn't a good set of words, but he knew by repeating that he was tough, he would feel braver.

Kenny opened the door as soon as he heard Craig knock, the boy's hand suspended in front of him as he adjusted to the immediate greeting.

"Hello." Craig said, dropping his hand to his side and stepping into the apartment when Kenny moved aside.

"Hey. Remembered your way up here?" Kenny asked playfully and Craig nodded.

"I've got a fairly good memory for places." He rolled his eyes, hovering in the entryway until Kenny remembered his host manners and said, "Oh, come sit down. Want anything to drink?"

"No, I'm fine. Stomach's bothering me a bit." Craig said, perching precariously on the edge of the couch as if suddenly very uncomfortable in the room. Kenny didn't really blame him though, it was another serious conversation they needed to have and it wasn't exactly pleasant if the outcome was negative.

"So." Kenny started, sitting next to Craig and trying to relax. His head was spinning with the things he'd thought of last night, but his mind had been made up for some time now so it wasn't hard to figure out he'd rather give the couple deal a try before parting from Craig. It had taken him all of ten minutes to come to terms with the fact that he didn't have an alternative option.

"So." Craig repeated, playing with his fingers for something to do. "What have you been up to today?"

"Watched TV. There's a zombie marathon on this channel, but they all kind of suck." Kenny said, easing into conversation.

The tension between them was uncomfortable and they could both sense it so it didn't make starting the serious stuff any easier. Craig shifted on the couch, trying to appear more casual than he really felt, leaning against the arm where the remote rested. He slipped out of his shoes, realizing he hadn't even thought to do that at the door and subtly moved them underneath the side table Kyle had put up for when they'd eaten dinner here last night.

"I guess we just get right into it, huh?" Kenny suggested, wanting this tension to be over. It was unbearable.

"Should probably." Craig agreed. "You say yours first."

"Why?" Kenny didn't want to go first.

"Because I said so."

"Why don't you go first?"

"Because I don't want to."

Kenny huffed unhappily, but knew he wasn't going to win this fight. He sucked in a breath and exhaled slowly before trying to force the words out.

"I think we should give this a try. I mean, I don't know if it'll work out, but I don't want to stop seeing you." Kenny confessed, eyes on the TV as if Craig might believe he was so casual he didn't care about the answer. Unfortunately for Kenny, Craig couldn't see where Kenny was looking because he too was avoiding eye contact and staring at the TV like he cared at all about the woman who was running away from a hoard of undead right now.

"What do you think?" Kenny asked.

"I..."

For a horrifying second, Kenny thought he might vomit. He had tried to prepare himself for rejection, but he was such a sap and could never truly be prepared for disappointment. He bit his tongue hard enough to make it hurt and waited for Craig to finish. This boy was so unbelievably good at tense pauses and it was agonizing.

The door clicked open before Craig could say anything and Clyde stepped into the room, carrying a small case Kenny assumed was from work.

"Hey guys. Didn't know you were coming over, Craig." Clyde said cheerfully, locking the door behind him and kicking off his polished shoes.

Craig stumbled over his words, entirely unprepared for a third party intruder.

"Uh...yeah. I...me and Kenny hang out."

"I know that." Clyde replied easily, lifting an eyebrow. "You okay, you look all rigid and shit."

"Fuck off, I look fine." Craig flipped Clyde off and Clyde pointed his index finger in Craig's direction.

"And now you look like normal." He laughed.

Kenny cursed Clyde's horrible timing and tried not to sound too annoyed as he opened his mouth to ask, "Why are you home so early?"

Clyde set his case down on the kitchen counter and shrugged out of his coat, moving to drape it over a chair at the counter.

"Most of my work today is paperwork so I figured I could do it at home. There's a lot of paperwork so I can take time off for moving too, so my boss let me home early." Clyde answered.

"You gonna do that in your room or out here?" Kenny couldn't have been more blunt, but there was really no subtle way to say 'You're interrupting, get out'.

"Why, am I interrupting something out here?" Clyde smirked and Kenny hated him for all of a full second.

"Yes." Kenny said, only to hear Craig reply in sync with him but with a contradictory "No."

Clyde eyed them both curiously with that damn smirk still in place and said, "Don't worry, I have to pack up a few things while I work so I will be in my room. You two love birds remember what Kyle said about no sexing in the apartment, though."

"Shut up!" Kenny felt his face heat up, sincerely not liking that Clyde knew about his sex life, specifically the one he had with Clyde's own friend.

Clyde only laughed and held up his hands in mock surrender, picking up his case and moving towards his room as if Kenny had him at gunpoint.

"Don't leave before saying bye, Craig!" Clyde called before he closed his bedroom door. It was only a few minutes before Kenny heard Clyde turn on the radio and he highly suspected it was to give them a bit of privacy because Clyde didn't really like the radio. An inspection of the room that he was going to take over, Kenny had found stacks of CD's from bands he'd never even heard of. Clyde was kind of an alternative music lover, from what Kenny could gather from his collection.

"Well that was interesting." Kenny rolled his eyes and Craig chuckled, relaxing a bit in the awkwardness of the moment.

"Clyde's got really inconvenient timing." He said, shaking his head as if this was just so Clyde's M.O.

Kenny didn't want to push, but there was only so much he could say before they needed to get back on topic.

"So...you were saying?" He asked gently.

Craig cleared his throat and nodded.

"Yeah. I was saying I think..."

Again, Kenny felt sick waiting, but Craig didn't hesitate long.

"I want to keep seeing you."

Kenny felt his head go a bit fuzzy.

"What?" He asked. "Seriously?"

Craig shrugged.

"I'm not really sure. I don't want to be _boyfriends_, that's such a lame term, but I want to keep doing...this." Craig waved his hand between his chest and where Kenny sat. "I'm fucking attached to you, I...got depressed when I thought about just cutting off and finding someone else to hang out with."

Kenny tried not to look too happy. The thought of being without him depressed Craig. Which means being with him made him happy. Fucking excellent.

"So you want to date but not be boyfriends?" Kenny clarified.

"Basically." Craig said, sighing heavily as though he'd been holding his breath through his decision.

"Okay." Kenny said, grinning widely, unable to stop himself. "So we can be like...just a couple. And call each other something else."

"Like what though?" Craig asked.

"Like...lovers?" Kenny suggested but he wasn't too fond of that term himself. Judging from the grimace Craig gave him, neither was his companion.

"How about just partners?" Craig offered. "It sounds less awful than the rest."

"Okay." Kenny said again, repeating the word _partners_ over and over in his head. "So we're like...going out?"

"Well...I guess...but let's do this properly, this feels really lame." Craig's face was coloring with a pinkish hue and Kenny nearly clapped his hands with insane delight at the knowledge that he was causing this blush.

"Like, ask you out?" Kenny pressed, wanting Craig to be blunt now that they had reached a decision.

"Fuck, just do it already." Craig snapped, averting his eyes and hating himself for blushing at this. It was so childish but he couldn't help it.

"Why don't you ask me?" Kenny asked, leaning in closer to Craig to test the waters.

"Uh-...be...because you started this deal thingy in the first place, it's kinda your thing to ask the questions, isn't it? You fucking interrogated me in the car that one time." Craig eyed Kenny from the neck down, refusing to look him in the eyes but definitely feeling the boy move closer.

"Alright." Kenny shifted closer to Craig and reached out to rest a hand over Craig's right wrist. "Will you be my partner? My gay butt buddy partner?"

Craig almost laughed but he caught himself and turned it into a weak glare instead.

"You're so fucking gay it hurts, you know." He said.

"Answer the question, Craig." Kenny smirked.

"...Sure."

Kenny beamed happily and did a badly choreographed dance on the couch in celebration and Craig gave a tiny smile, trying very hard not to laugh at the blonde's poor rhythm.

"Does that mean I can kiss you wherever?" Kenny stopped dancing suddenly, his eyes wide with the realization of what exactly partners entailed.

"Were you deaf? I only kiss the people I date. We're dating now." Craig was adamant about keeping up his rough act, completely and utterly unused to the feeling of actually wanting to be with someone this much. Not that he'd ever admit it. Kenny would have to work hard if he ever wanted to get under that layer.

"So that means yes." Kenny grinned wickedly and leaned forward again, his nose just inches from Craig's.

"That means yes." Craig nearly whispered, rolling his eyes.

Kenny closed the gap between them and pressed his lips eagerly to Craig's, his whole body tingling with whatever adrenaline and excitement came from being in a relationship. He hoped the feeling would wear down a bit in the future because he felt like he was literally vibrating with it, but for now it was okay.

Craig closed his eyes and let Kenny kiss him, wondering if his heart was supposed to beat this fast. It was weird but thrilling at the same time and he hated himself for giving into it, but Kenny was a pretty good kisser so the anger didn't last long as he felt the blonde poke at his lips with his tongue. He parted his lips, giving Kenny access and felt a shiver run through his body as Kenny slipped a hand behind his head to keep him in place. A shaky breath escaped him to be caught up by Kenny's mouth and Craig reciprocated with a hand to the base of Kenny's neck, pushing into the kiss with almost delirious enthusiasm.

They separated reluctantly when they remembered where they were and Kenny smiled happily at his new _partner._

"I kinda maybe like you a lot." He said, knowing it was cheesy but it was less intimidating than the word 'love'.

Craig smirked and replied, "I think I kinda maybe like you too."

"A lot?"

"Don't push it." Craig's voice was low and unbearable sexy to Kenny as he said this, but he knew with Clyde in the other room and Kyle's rules, he had to tone it down. The smirk in place was enough to assure Kenny of Craig's feelings, as least for now, so he settled for stealing another kiss, happier than he had been in a long while.

**0000000**

_Kyle, sent at 2:30 pm:_

So they're over there now?

_Clyde, sent at 2:30 pm:_

Yup. I think you're winning the bet :(

_Kyle, sent at 2:31 pm:_

Of course I am, I'm a fucking psychic.

_Clyde, sent at 2:31 pm:_

A psychic who's robbing me of $40.

_Kyle, sent at 2:33 pm:_

I wouldn't be a psychic if I did it for free, man, don't you know us at all? So are you sure I win?

Clyde dropped his cell phone onto his bed amidst the paper work sorted into piles and moved over to the bedroom door. He cracked it open just a bit, peering through the slats to see a barely obscured visual of Kenny and Craig kissing on the couch. He grinned but shook his head, moving back to the bed.

_Clyde, sent at 2:34pm:_

You win.

_Kyle, sent at 2:35 pm:_

HA! I knew Kenny would talk him into it. I'll be home at 6, I want my money.

_Clyde, sent at 2:35 pm_:

Lol, fine fine. They're kinda cute together anyway.

**000000**

**Author's Note:  
**

****I've been busy getting ready to move in with a friend of mine at the moment, but luckily once I'm there I should have plenty of time for writing. I'll be starting a _new_ story and finishing off the **FIRST** half of this one. A ** SECOND **part will follow shortly after this one. Thank you all for the support you've been showing this story, I really hope I continue to entertain you in the future XD


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